Andre Chiefs

Malden, MA- Jared Freni was on top of his game once again and this time his teammates finally provided him a run, albeit that they waited until the seventh inning to do it, in a 1-0 Chiefs walk off win against the Wakefield Merchants on Monday night at Maplewood Park.

The game’s only run came when Jeff Bercume (pictured right) led off with a triple to right field and scored on a wild pitch with Juan Portes at the plate and one away in the bottom of the seventh.

The game featured a scoreless pitcher’s duel between Freni (1-0) and the Mulhenberg College (PA) ace Christian Ferlan of Litchfield NH (0-1).

Freni was perfect thru five innings before rookie Jason Dahl broke up the streak with a long triple off the base of the fence in left-center with one out in the top of the sixth inning.

The Chiefs threatened and had runners in scoring position in the first, third and fifth innings but each time they were denied by Ferlan.

In the Chiefs sixth, Tony Deshler singled and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Matt Boleski. Ferlan then got Mike Barbati to fly to right for the second out. Nick Leva followed and drilled a sharp single to center. A perfect throw home from Merchants’ centerfielder David Orlowitz  to catcher Mike Sorrentino nailed Deshler at the plate to keep the game scoreless.

Jared Freni

Ferlan allowed eight hits and struck out four. Freni struck out sixteen and walked two.

Brendan Pyburn (2-4, double), Leva (2-3) and Juan Portes, who went 2 for 3 in his Chiefs debut, all had multiple hit games.

The Merchants are back in action on Tuesday when they take on the Americans at Playstead Park in a 6:00 PM start. The Chiefs are off until Thursday when they travel to East Boston Stadium to meet the Testa. Corp Bombers at 8:00 PM.