Andre Chiefs

Malden, MA- If you enjoy offense, Maplewood Park was not the place to be on Monday night.

On the other hand, if great defense, dominating pitching, monumental escapes, and flirting with no-hitters and perfect games is your affinity, you would have been well served.

In a gem of pitcher’s duel, where runs and hits were rarer that a dry day this summer, the Reds’ duo of Nick Ahearn and Charlie DeFrancesco and the Chiefs’ Jared Freni hooked up in a classic. Both teams combined for just four hits in the game with the Chiefs’ eventually prevailing 1-0 on Nate Witkowski’s fifth inning RBI single.

Ahearn and Freni were almost perfect through four innings. The first twelve Chiefs that came to plate were retired in succession by Ahearn. Freni was nearly as good, issuing a one out walk to Steve Morganelli in third inning, before picking him off second base.

As they went to fifth inning, the linescore read: twenty four batters up, twenty four batters down. No hits, no runs, and the one baserunner that reached was picked off for good measure.

The Chiefs finally provided some evidence that there was actually a reason to have a Louisville Slugger or two in the yard, when they picked up the lone run of the game in the bottom of the fifth. Peter Copa started the inning and singled off Will Brennan’s glove at shortstop. Mike Andre followed and moved Copa to second with a sacrifice bunt. Witkowski then provided the night’s offense when he lined a single to right-center with Copa beating Mac Jacobson’s throw to the plate.

There were a few other scoring threats in the game but neither team could capitalize.

The Reds actually got two men aboard with two outs in the sixth inning when Freni walked Justin Knight and Jacobson in succession. That threat went by the boards when a would be wild pitch didn’t get away from catcher Nick Leva far enough and he hosed Knight out trying to advance to third.

The Chiefs got a big time threat going in the bottom of the sixth inning when they loaded the bases with nobody out. A Leva single and walks to Tony Serino and Tony Deshler finally chased Ahearn from the mound in favor of DeFrancesco. The lefty pulled a Houdini like escape against the Chiefs’ 3-4-5 hitters when he got Juan Portes to ground out, Copa to pop up, and Andre to fly out to left-center, with Josue Feliciano making a nice running catch to end the inning and keep it a one run game.

Feliciano broke up Freni’s bid for a no-hitter and assured that the Reds wouldn’t go quietly in the seventh. After Kyle LaVinge grounded to Portes for the first out, Feliciano drilled a breaking ball into the right-center field gap for a long double. With the tying run in scoring position, Freni struck out the always dangerous Sean Callahan looking for the second out. Brennan, who had hit the ball well all night, was next up but Freni put a close to the evening when he got him to groundout to Mike Barbati at second base.

Ahearn (1-3), went 5 innings plus and allowed three hits and struck out two after his four perfect innings. Freni who is now 5-0, allowed just the seventh inning double, while walking three and added to his impressive strikeout total by setting down 13 Reds.

The Reds and Chiefs are both off for the Fourth of July Break. Watertown returns to action on Sunday when they host the Wakefield Merchants in a doubleheader. The first place Chiefs, who hit the break with a 10-3 mark, also return from their holiday hiatus on Sunday when they entertain the Arlington Trojans at Tufts University in Medford starting at 5:00 PM.  -B.T.