Andre Chiefs

Malden, MA- The Reading Bulldogs got a complete game effort from Kevin Church to beat the Chiefs 6-3 in the regular season finale at Maplewood Park on Wednesday night.

The Chiefs finished the regular season at 23-7-2 but saw their ten game winning streak come to an end despite outhitting the Bulldogs 8-7. They now enjoy a first round bye and await their semi-final opponent. They will play either Watertown, Wakefield or Reading, depending on the first round results, in a best of five series most likely starting next Tuesday. Both the Watertown-Medford and Wakefield-Reading best of three series are expected to begin on Friday.

The Chiefs used five pitchers in Wednesday’s game; Rob Machado, Sam McDonough, John Chotkowski, Paul Covelle and Dan Bonito. Machado (1-1) took the loss. The righty worked the first three innings giving up five runs on three hits. He also walked four, struck out one, and hit a couple of batters. McDonough worked a scoreless fourth with an inning ending strikeout, Chotkowski gave up a run on a couple of hits in the fifth, Covelle allowed a hit and walked two in the sixth, and Bonito worked a 1-2-3 seventh for the Chiefs.

Church kept the Chiefs off the board until the bottom of the sixth when they picked up two runs on Jeff Bercume’s second triple of the night, Juan Portes’ double, and a RBI fielder’s choice by Mike Andre.

The Chiefs picked up their third run in the bottom of the seventh on singles by Mike Baillargeon, rookie Christian Veneziano and Bercume and an RBI groundout from Andy Cavanaugh. For Veneziano, it was the first hit of his ICL career and for Cavanaugh, his first RBI.

Steve Buitkus had a big night at the plate for Reading going three for four with three RBI. Bercume reached base four times for the Chiefs (walk, two triples, single) and Portes went two for three, including his sixth inning double.

More regular season wrap-up and playoff coverage tomorrow.