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.