Andre Chiefs

Medford, MA- Like Yogi Berra said “it’s déjà vu all over again”.

Last season Keith Forbes and the Chiefs ran into now New York Mets southpaw Jim Fuller and the two teams battled to a 0-0 tie. On Wednesday night another Cassell lefty, Tim Dunphy, matched Forbes pitch for pitch and the end result was once again a scoreless tie.

Both teams had some serious chances to break the scoring ice but when all was said and done, Forbes and Dunphy both kept their respective shutouts intact.

Things started real shaky for the Chiefs in the first when the first three Cassell batters, Teddy O’Reilly, Josh Mackey and Jimmy Roche, all reached base via two errors and an infield single. In typical Forbes fashion, the former San Diego Padre reached back and struck out Jeff Paquette, Ted Dziuba and Matt Basteri in succession to escape the major league jam.

The Chiefs threatened in the bottom of the first when Brendan Pyburn led off with a single. The Cassell defense did their best to mirror the Chiefs shaky start when Nate Leva reached on an error putting runners on first and second with no outs. Dunphy, who pitched professionally last season for the Namur Angels of the Belgian Major League, got the Cassell boys out of it by striking out Andrew Hanson, getting Justin Crisafulli to fly to center and Paul Koslowski to groundout.

Forbes got Cassell in order in the top of the second and the Chiefs got another runner in scoring position in the bottom of the inning. Mike Andre singled to right with one out and went to second when the throw back to the infield got away. Dunphy pitched out of it getting Matt Lawlor to fly out and Phil Costello to ground to first.

Neither team threatened again until Cassell got the first two runners aboard in the fifth on a Bob McCarthy single to left and a walk to Aaron Santos.  Forbes once again stepped it up a notch and struck out both Matt Rogers and Mackey sandwiched around a O’Reilly flyout that ended the inning.

Lawlor singled leading off the Chiefs fifth and Costello sacrificed him to second. Dunphy pulled another escape when he got Pyburn to fly to left and Leva to lineout to right.

Roche led off with a single up the middle to start the Cassell sixth but was quickly erased when Paquette, who started this season in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, bounced into a 6-4-3 double play.

The night’s best scoring chance came in the Chiefs sixth when Crisafulli laced a single to left with one away. Koslowski followed with long bomb to right that certainly had home run distance but curled two feet foul. Dunphy regained his composure and got both Koslowski and Brenden Shepard to both fly out.

Cassell went in order in the top of the seventh and the Chiefs threatened once again to win it in the bottom half of the inning. Andre rapped his second hit of the night to right and speedy Mike Barbati pinch ran. Lawlor sacrificed Barbati to second but Dunphy became stingy one more time and struck out Costello and got Pyburn to groundout to end the game.

Forbes struck out twelve and allowed three hits. Dunphy allowed just five hits and struck out two.

The Chiefs remain in second place with a 7-3-3 record while Cassell goes to 10-1-1 on the year.

The defending champions Lexington Blue Sox visit Tufts University tonight (Thursday) at 6:00 PM. Righty Jose Pimentel (2-0), who pitched in the Padres organization last season, will get the start for the Chiefs.
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