Andre Chiefs

Wakefield, MA- Horrendous defense, miserable early April like weather, and about as many fans as you could put in the backseat of a mid-size car.

Make no mistake about it, Cooperstown is not calling for a tape of this one!

Those were some of the components that came into play on Sunday afternoon at Walsh Field in Wakefield when the Chiefs somehow came away with a 9-7 win.

The Chiefs opened up a 6-1 lead and saw the Merchants come back to tie things up at 7-7 before putting up two seventh inning runs to grab the win.

The Chiefs jumped out to a 1-0 lead off Kevin Tidmarsh in the first inning on a two out RBI single from Hal Landers which scored Brendan Pyburn who led off with a single.

The Merchants came right back in the home half of the first on a Mike Sorrentino RBI single surrendered by Chiefs starter Dylan Ellis to tie it up at 1-1.

A two out error by the Merchants opened up the floodgates in the top of the second when the Chiefs scored five unearned runs. After two were out, Mike Barbati walked and Pyburn reached on the infield error. A Bob McCarthy single scored Barbati to make it 2-1. Jeff Bercume followed with a line shot single to right which scored Pyburn giving the Chiefs a 3-1 lead. Northeast-10 Player of the Year Mike Baillargeon made his presence felt when he lifted a long triple to the fence in left-center scoring McCarthy and Bercume to up the advantage to 5-1. Landers then delivered a line drive single to center pushing Baillargeon across and giving the Chiefs a 6-1 lead.

Ellis held Wakefield scoreless in the second and third innings, despite some shoddy defense, and Tidmarsh settled down and blanked the Chiefs in the third and fourth innings.

The Merchants sent ten men to the plate in the bottom of the fourth and scored four runs (two earned) to make it a one run game at 6-5.

Tidmarsh again got the Chiefs side in order in the top of the fifth and the Merchants tied the game up at 6-6 in the bottom of the inning. Assumption’s Joe Martini came on in relief of Ellis to start the inning and was victimized by another unearned run when Alex LiDonni and Josh Band both reached on errors.

The Chiefs regained the lead at 7-6 in the top of the sixth courtesy of a Pyburn double and another McCarthy RBI single.

The Merchants got another unearned gift from the Chiefs in the bottom of the sixth to re-tie the game at seven. Taylor Von Kriegenberg reached when Matt Boleski misplayed his fly ball to left. Southpaw Chris Labriola came on for Martini to face lefty Jason Roth. Roth sacrificed Von Kriegenberg to second before another lefty, Matt Russo, took a Labriola offering to deep left for a RBI triple.

Enter Chris Foundas. The ICL all-star closer in 2008 struck out Kevin Johnson swinging and got pinch hitter Sam Choate to ground out to Baillaegeon stranding Russo at third with the go ahead run.

Hal Landers led off the Chiefs seventh with a single to center and stole second. Mike Andre then lined a single to right with Landers stopping at third. Eddie McDonald pinch ran for Andre and with runners on the corners, reliever Kevin Flight got pinch hitter Bill Catlado swinging. Boleski then got a big chunk of redemption when he lined a Flight pitch to right scoring Landers. Barbati followed with a single up the middle that plated McDonald and gave the Chiefs a 9-7 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh.

Foundas got LiDonni and Band to both pop to Pyburn at short and he put an end to the day’s follies when he got Steve Langone to fly to Bercume in centerfield.

With the win the Chiefs go to 5-1-1 on the season. They host the Lexington Blue Sox at Tufts University on Monday at 6:00 PM. Right-hander Ryan McNeill will draw the starting assignment for the Chiefs. 

Medford, MA- Bobby Giarratani twirled a complete game two-hitter and Mike Adessa drilled a two out, two run home run in the sixth inning as the Testa Corp. Bombers knocked off the Chiefs 5-0 at Tufts University on Friday evening. 

Giarratani, from Denison College in Ohio, took a no-hitter into the fifth inning before Brendan Pyburn broke up the bid with a single to right field. The Chiefs Dan Lozeau matched Giarratini pitch for pitch for 5.2 innings. Adessa finally broke the scoring drought with a sixth inning line shot over the right field wall scoring Nick Martinho, who had singled, ahead of him. 

The Chiefs had several chances to break into the scoring column, leaving runners in scoring position in the second, third, fourth and sixth innings. 

In the bottom of the second inning, J.P. Pollard drew a lead off walk and Giarratani got Hal Landers swinging for the first out. A Mike Barbati fielder’s choice moved Pollard to second and the Bombers Mike Navarro kept it a scoreless game when he ran down a deep Mike Andre line drive to straightaway right to end the inning. 

The defensive gems continued for the Bombers in the bottom of the third. Catcher Eddie McDonald reached on Testa’s only error of the night on a slow hit ball that was mishandled by shortstop Joe Papa. McDonald went to second on a passed ball but Giarratani got Pyburn to bounce back to him for the first out. Brian Macrina followed with a ten pitch at bat then ended when Giarratani finally got him swinging on a 3-2 pitch. Jeff Bercume looked like he was about to give the Chiefs the lead when he hit a hard one hopper to the right of first baseman Josh Klimkiewicz. The former Harvard star made a nice diving stop and recovered quickly enough to flip to Giarratani covering first to get the fleet Bercume by half a step. 

Another Chiefs scoring opportunity went by the boards in the fourth when Landers drew a two out walk, stole second, but couldn’t get any further as Giarratani again got tough and caught Barbati looking at a third strike. 

The Chiefs got a defensive gem of their own in the top of the fifth when Brian Macrina made a spectacular diving grab of Steve Buikus line drive with Paul Bonfiglio, who had walked and went to second on a sacrifice bunt, in scoring position. 

The Chiefs were poised to take the lead again in the fifth when Pyburn broke up the no-hitter with a two out single and proceeded to steal second. A Macrina fly ball to center ended the inning and the teams went into the sixth at 0-0.  

Addesa’s shot in the top of the sixth came with two outs. The inning started well enough for Lozeau when he struck out Navarro swinging. Martinho followed with a single and Lozeau got the dangerous Klimkiewicz to fly to Landers in right. Adessa caught up with a Lozeau fastball and provided instant offense for the Bombers and a 2-0 lead. 

Bercume’s chalk raising double down the right field line was all the Chiefs could muster against Giarratani in the sixth and Chris Foundas came on for Lozeau, his former Bryant University teammate, to work the top of seventh. 

A throwing error by Copa at third, a hit batsman, two walks, a wild pitch and a Klimkiewicz single, added up to three unearned runs off Foundas and 5-0 Bombers lead heading into the bottom of the seventh. 

Giarratani made quick work of the Chiefs in the seventh. He got Matt Boleski, who was pinch hitting for Barbati, to groundout, Andre to fly to center and ended things when he got pinch hitter Phil Costello looking. 

Giarratani struck out seven and surrendered three walks on the way to picking up his first win of the year. Lozeau, who suffered his first loss, pitched very well for the Chiefs giving up just three hits and recording a couple of strikeouts. 

The Chiefs begin a three game pre-Fourth of July stretch on Sunday at Walsh Field in Wakefield at 3:00 PM. Lefty Dylan Ellis (1-0) is expected to start for the Chiefs.       

Medford, MA- The Chiefs have announced the addition of former Assumption College infielder and 2009 Northeast-10 Conference Player of the Year Mike Baillargeon.

Baillargeon is expected to add some much needed offensive power to the lineup. The Chiefs are hitting only .236 as a team through the first six games of the season. They were shutout on just two hits on Friday night while dropping their first game of the summer. 

A native of Worcester, Baillargeon just capped off a great four year career with the Greyhounds being named to the Rawlings/American Baseball Coaches Association NCAA Division II All American second team.

Baillargeon batted a lofty .393 this past season with a team-record 84 hits and also led Assumption in runs (56), singles (57), home runs (11), stolen bases (12), bases on balls (27) and total bases (136).

He set career marks in games (187), games started (187), at bats (731), hits (267), triples (15, tied), sacrifice flies (11) and was only caught stealing ten times in fifty three attempts during his college career.

Baillargeon is expected to join the Chiefs on Sunday when they travel to Walsh Field in Wakefield to begin a three game road trip in a rare 3:00 PM start. - Bruce Tillman

Year       Avg   GP-GS     AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   SB-ATT

2006....  .294   44-44    177   25   52   12    3    1   17   10   34    7-9

2007....  .329   41-41    152   28   50   11    4    3   22   17   24   16-17

2008....  .431   47-47    188   32   81   12    5    0   29   21   26    8-13

2009....  .393   55-55    214   56   84   13    3   11   44   27   47   12-14

TOTAL...  .365  187-187   731  141  267   48   15   15  112   75  131   43-53

(Information Provided by Assumption College Athletics and the Northeast 10)

Medford, MA- After eight days the rain finally stopped.

Chiefs righty Mike DiCato never did.

The former UMass-Amherst and Malden Catholic star was nearly flawless once again, picking up his second straight win, as the Chiefs turned back the Wakefield Merchants 4-2 at Huskins Field on Thursday evening.

DiCato tossed zeros at the Merchants until the seventh when the visitors finally broke through for a couple of runs after the Chiefs had already opened up a 4-0 lead.

Wakefield threatened to grab an early lead in the first inning.  Rollins College's Josh Band led off with a single to center and the Merchants appeared to be in business when former Red Sox farmhand Steve Langone singled sharply past Peter Copa at third. Northeastern's Jason Roth was next and drove a ball that was earmarked for the right-centerfield gap. Wheaton rookie Hal Landers had other ideas as he got on his horse and made a nice back to plate grab with Band tagging and going to third on the play. DiCato then came up huge striking out UMass Lowell star Taylor Von Kriegenberg looking and ICL all-star catcher Mike Sorrentino swinging.

Trinity lefty James Ramsey got two outs in the bottom of the first inning before running into a bit of trouble when Jeff Bercume and Justin Crisafulli both reached on miscues. Ramsey escaped when he got Brian Macrina to ground to Alex LiDonni at third base ending the threat.

DiCato and Ramsey matched zeros in the second before the Chiefs broke through to take a 1-0 lead in the third. Shortstop Brendan Pyburn led off with a solid single to center. Ramsey got Bob McCarthy to fly to left and Bercume followed with the first of his three consecutive singles, this one a line shot to center. Sorrentino's errant attempt to pick Bercume off first base went into short right allowing Pyburn to scamper to third. Crisafulli's RBI fielder's choice then scored Pyburn for the game's first run. Ramsey caught Macrina looking to end the inning keeping it a one run game.

DiCato went into cruise control retiring the Merchants side in order in the third, fourth and fifth innings before the Chiefs gave him a little breathing room with three fifth inning runs. Pyburn drew a walk to get things started and a McCarthy sharp single to center moved him to second. Bercume then dropped a perfect bunt single to load them up for Crisafulli. The Chiefs all time RBI leader added two more to his career total of 370 when he drilled an opposite field single to right scoring both Pyburn and McCarthy that jumped the lead to 3-0. Dario Pizzano came on to run for Crisafulli and righty Kevin Flight relieved Ramsey for the Merchants. Flight threw Macrina's grounder wide of first allowing Bercume to score the Chiefs fourth run. J.P. Pollard flew to left for the inning's first out and Copa drew a walk to load the bases. Flight escaped more trouble when he got Landers swinging and pinch hitter Mike Andre, who was making his first appearance of the season on the road back from knee surgery, to ground to Langone at second.

The Merchants spoiled DiCato's shutout bid in the seventh. Von Kriegenberg led off and beat out an infield single up the middle. Sorrentino then gave the Merchants their biggest bang of the night when he drilled a double past the diving Bercume in center sending Von Kriengenberg to third. Kevin Johnson got the Merchants on the board with a RBI grounder to Pollard at first scoring Von Kriengenberg. LiDonni then grounded to Andre at third base for the second out with Sorrentino scoring on play. DiCato ended the proceedings in style when he struck out pinch hitter John D'Angelo swinging.

DiCato allowed five hits, struck out five and issued one walk. With the complete game 84 pitch outing, the Winthrop, MA native raised his record to 2-0 on the season. Ramsey suffered the loss for Wakefield and fell to 0-2. 

The Chiefs are right back in action on Friday at 6:00 PM when they host the Testa Corp. Bombers at Tufts University with Dan Lozeau drawing the starting nod. The Bombers got a complete game three hitter from Mike Hashem and defeated the Medford Americans 3-1 under the lights East Boston Stadium on Thursday night.

Wakefield
                                    IP      H     R      ER      BB      SO 
J. Ramsey L,(0-2)          4.0     8     4        3         2         3  
K. Flight                       2.0     1     0        0         1         2
Chiefs
Mike DiCato W, (2-0)    7.0      5     2        2         1         5

Medford, MA- If you blinked you probably missed it. 

In one of the most rapidly played ICL games in history, the Chiefs battled back from a 2-0 deficit with two seventh inning runs, courtesy of a Jeff Bercume two out, two RBI single, to tie up the Wakefield Merchants 2-2 at Tufts University. 

The game took a brief one hour and twelve minutes to complete.  

The two main components that contributed to the swiftness of the game were former Chicago Cubs farmhand Steve Coffey and Bryant University’s career twenty game winner Dan Lozeau. Coffey and Lozeau threw nothing but strikes with both surrendering just four hits. Coffey did not issue a walk or record a strikeout while Lozeau allowed one free pass and struck out four Merchants. 

Coffey took a one-hitter into the bottom of the seventh before the Chiefs bats came alive just in time to pick up a point in the standings. The ICL veteran had only allowed two base runners in the first 6.1 innings, J.P. Pollard who reached on Wakefield’s only miscue of the night in the first and was subsequently thrown out trying to steal second and Bob McCarthy's bloop single to left in the third.  

Wakefield struck first in the top half of the second inning to take a 1-0 lead. Taylor Von Kriengenberg led off with a single and catcher Mike Sorrentino followed with a hard grounder to third baseman Peter Copa. Copa made a nice play going to his right to glove the ball but his throw to first was high allowing Von Kriengenberg to take third with Sorrentino ending up at second. With both runners in scoring position, Lozeau recorded a big first out when he got veteran Dana D’Agostino swinging. Dan Mello was next up and he hit a ground ball that deflected off Lozeau’s glove to second baseman Mike Barbati. Barbati’s only play was to first base, throwing out Mello by a step with Von Kriengenberg scoring. 

The Merchants lead went to 2-0 in the fourth inning. With two outs, Sorrentino drew Lozeau’s only walk of the night and scored from first on D’Agostino’s gap shot double to the fence in left center.

Coffey meanwhile was cruising right along facing only one batter over the minimum until there was one out in the seventh. In the Chiefs last at bat, Coffey got out number one when McCarthy bounced to Mello at second. Pollard then kept the Chiefs hopes alive when he drilled a clean single up the middle. Cleanup man Justin Crisafulli followed with a long single off the base of the wall in right that sent Pollard to third. Eddie McDonald then came on to pinch run for Crisafulli. Coffey then hit Copa with a 1-2 pitch loading the bases for Bercume. The sweet swinging all East selection from Merrimack College then delivered both Pollard and McDonald with a single to right center knotting the game at two. The Chiefs had a chance to win it with Copa in scoring position but Coffey preserved the tie when he got Barbati to ground to Alex LiDonni at third to end the game.

With the deadlock, the Chiefs stay unbeaten in ICL play (3-0-1, 4-0-1 overall) and the Merchants go to 2-3-1. Next up for the Chiefs is a date with the Medford Americans on Thursday at 6:00 PM at Tufts University.