Andre Chiefs

Woburn, MA- Jeff Bercume hit two home runs in Game One, including a third inning grand slam, and knocked in eight runs on the night to lead the Chiefs to a doubleheader sweep over the Mooney Dental Tanners at Ferullo Field on Sunday evening. 

Game One- Chiefs 12, Tanners 4 - The Chiefs overcame a rocky start, trailing 3-0 after two innings, to beat the Tanners 12-4.  

Mooney got to Chiefs starter Dan Lozeau early to grab a 2-0 lead in the first inning on four consecutive singles from Ben Mullin, Matt Ruane, Nick Napoli and Bob Wronski. Lozeau averted more damage with the bases loaded when the Chiefs turned a 5-2-3 (Mike Andre to Bob McCarthy to JP Pollard) inning ending doubleplay. 

The Tanners were right back at it in the second and picked up their third run on a Derek Dettorre double and a Ruane sacrifice fly. Rob Machado came on in relief of Lozeau with the bases juiced and two outs and escaped the jam when he got Ryan Doyle to foul out. 

Bercume brought the Chiefs back quickly in the top of the third against Tanners starter Max McKenna (Amherst). He hit his grand slam to right-center scoring Andre and McCarthy, who had both singled, and Brendan Pyburn who drew a base on balls. 

The Chiefs put up another four spot in the fourth. Dario Pizzano walked, Peter Copa reached on an error and Pollard singled to load the bases. Andre then drilled McKenna’s first pitch down the right field line scoring Pizzano and Copa to make it a 6-3 affair. A Pyburn single scored Pollard and a long sacrifice fly to left by Brian Macrina plated Andre to run the Chiefs margin to 8-3. 

Joe Smith’s long triple and Keegan DeNapoli’s RBI single off Machado cut the lead to 8-4 in the bottom of the fifth before the Chiefs put it out of reach with four more runs in the top of the sixth.

 Bercume hit his second round tripper of the night to straight away right scoring Pyburn (double) ahead of him. The Chiefs weren’t finished as Justin Crisafulli drew a walk, Pizzano doubled and pinch hitter Mike Barbati drove a sacrifice fly to right to make it 11-4. Pollard followed with another RBI single scoring Pizzano to account for the 12-4 final. 

Machado (1-2) picked up his first ICL win with 4.1 innings of one run, four hit relief work. The UMass-Amherst righty struck out four and did not issue a walk. 

Game Two- Chiefs 9, Tanners 2- The Chiefs took a quick 1-0 first inning lead in the night cap. Hal Landers drilled a leadoff single to center and Pyburn reached on fielder’s choice that erased Landers at second. Tanners starter Marc Collins’ errant attempt to pick Pyburn off first allowed the Chiefs shortstop to scamper all the way to third. He did not stay there long as Bercume promptly delivered him with a sacrifice fly to left. 

The Tanners came right back at southpaw Dylan Ellis to take a 2-1 lead of their own in the bottom of the inning when DeNapoli unloaded with a long two RBI double to center. 

The Chiefs drew even at 2-2 in the third on Bercume’s second single of  Game Two and eighth RBI of the day when he delivered McCarthy who had walked. 

Ellis got a little breathing room an inning later when the Chiefs scored two runs to take a 4-2 lead when Landers drilled a two RBI single to center scoring Andre and Macrina.  

It went to 5-2 Chiefs in the sixth on a single from Andre, a McCarthy walk and an infield error. 

Four more runs came across for the Chiefs in the seventh on singles by Bercume, Crisafulli and Landers (2 more RBI) and a long double from Pollard that opened the lead to 9-2. 

The Tanners loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the seventh. The defensive play of the day was turned in by Barbati at second base when he dove to his right to glove Mullin’s screaming liner and then fired a strike to Pollard at first for a doubleplay that ended the game. 

Elllis, now 3-0, went the distance allowing seven hits and striking out seven. 

The Chiefs and Tanners are right back at it on Monday in a 6:00 PM start at Tufts University. Mike DiCato (3-2) will get the nod for the Chiefs.