Andre Chiefs

Medford, MA- The Chiefs sent 14 men to the plate in a nine run sixth inning to come from behind to beat the Mooney Dental Tanners 10-3 at Tufts University on Thursday night.

This looked as if it was going to be the Tanners night through the first five and one half innings before Mike Barbati turned the tide when he delivered the key hit, a one out, bases loaded, two RBI double, that gave the Chiefs the lead at 3-2. Barbati’s double opened the floodgates and gave Mike DiCato (4-0), his fourth straight win.

Both teams threatened in the first inning but neither could score. The Tanners had men on first and second (single, error) but Chiefs starter Mike DiCato struck out the side. The Chiefs loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the inning on a single from Peter Copa, a walk to Justin Crisafulli, and an infield single from Tim Dempsey, in his first at bat as a Chief. Tanners’ starter Dan Blum escaped the jam when right-fielder Bryan Watkins took at least a single away from Mike Andre down the rightfield line to end the inning.

Both clubs went quietly in the second inning.

DiCato gave up consecutive one out singles in the top of the third to Carlton Lentini and Jon Bishop before pitching out of the jam by getting Watkins on a grounder to Andre at third and striking out Ryan Doyle. Bob McCarthy was hit by a Blum pitch, with one out in the bottom of the inning, and promptly stole second. Copa followed and hit an absolute bullet back to Blum, who made the grab and easily doubled McCarthy off second, ending the inning.

The Tanners used some DiCato wildness and a couple of well placed hits to grab a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth. Keegan DeNapoli and Nick Dettore both drew free passes to begin the inning. A nice play by shortstop Tony Deshler got DiCato the first out when he ranged deep into the hole and made a nice play on Mike Baldino’s grounder and threw to second to force Dettore on a bang-bang play. Nick Ruocco followed and singled to left scoring DeNapoli. Joe Galli then singled to deep short scoring Baldino. The Chiefs averted further trouble when Lentini bounced into a 1-6-3 doubleplay.

The Chiefs offensive frustration continued into the bottom of the fourth. Crisafulli was hit by a Blum pitch and Dempsey followed with drive to deep right, into a stiff wind, that Watkins reeled in at the wall. After Andre flew to center for the second out, Deshler blooped a single to right. Blum ended the Chiefs threat when he struck out Matt Boleski swinging sending the game to the fifth with the Tanners holding a 2-0 lead.

DiCato retired the side in order in the top of the fifth and the Chiefs cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning. Hal Landers drew a one out walk, stole second, and came around to score on Copa’s RBI single to right-center.

DiCato set the Tanners down in order again in the sixth. The stage was set for the 45 minute bottom of the inning where the Chiefs scored nine times and recorded nine hits against three Tanner pitchers. Dempsey (pictured at left) started things off and reached on another infield single. With Andre at the plate, the Tanners called for a well timed pitchout and Demspey was thrown out by Ruocco attempting to steal second. Andre got things started right up again when he lined a single to right and rookie Paul Yanakopulos pinch ran for him. Deshler drew a walk and Boleski followed with a line single to right loading the bases. Barbati took the count full before drilling a long double to the right-center field gap scoring Yanakopulos and Deshler and putting the Chiefs in front at 3-2. Colby lefty Brady Hesslein then came on in relief of Blum. Landers then hit a grounder to Lentini at second and the sliding Boleski beat his throw home to make it 4-2. McCarthy then lined a single to center scoring Barbati and Landers and jumping the lead to 6-2. Copa was next and he singled scoring Landers making it 7-2. Kevin Georgette replaced Hesslein and he walked Crisafulli and Eric Rosenberg pinch ran for him. Dempsey delivered his third hit of his Chiefs debut, a single to right-center that scored McCarthy, as the lead grew to 8-2. Yanakopulos made his first career ICL at bat a productive one when he lofted a deep sacrifice fly to right that plated Copa. Consecutive singles from Deshler (infield, broken bat) scoring Rosenberg, and Boleski, scoring Dempsey, accounted for the final two runs. The marathon inning finally ended when ironically Barbati flew to left.

Rob Machado relieved DiCato to start the seventh and allowed an unearned run while recording two strikeouts.

DiCato went six innings to record the win. He allowed six hits and struck out seven.

Chiefs Notebook….Former St. John’s Prep and University of Michigan lefty Jeff DeCarlo is scheduled to get the start when the Chiefs visit the Arlington Trojans at Summer St. Field on Friday at 7:00 PM…. Brendan Pyburn, Brian Macrina, Mike Gedman and Matt Anderson were all out of the lineup on Thursday…..