Andre Chiefs

Watertown, MA- The Chiefs rode the five hit pitching of Tim Dunphy and took advantage of some untimely Reds’ errors en route to 4-3 win at Victory Field on Wednesday night.

Paul Yanakopulos led off the Chiefs first with a single to center but was promptly erased when Mike Barbati bounced back to Reds’ starter Aric Dama who started a 1-6-3 doubleplay.

Dunphy got the Reds in order in the bottom of the first and the Chiefs got their leadoff man on again in the second inning when Mike Andre singled to left-center. Just like an inning earlier, the threat was derailed when Mike DiCato grounded into a 4-6-3 doubleplay.

The Reds put together a threat in the bottom of the second inning when Justin Forman and Will Brennan both singled but Dunphy got out of it with three ground ball outs.

The Chiefs took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third. Rookie Corey Brammer delivered the first hit of his ICL career, a one out double to right-center, that was just out of the reach of the diving Josue Feliciano. Dama then walked Yanakopoulos before Barbati hit a grounder that forced him at second and sent Brammer to third. Dama tried to keep Barbati close at first but threw low for an error, allowing Brammer to scamper home with the first run of the game. Nate Witkowski drew a walk and Barbati stole third, but Dama escaped when he got Peter Copa to pop up.

Dunphy kept the Reds hitless in the both third and fourth inning.

Bentley righty Scot Lueders came on for Dama and blanked the Chiefs in the top of the fifth.

Justin Knight hit a one out bomb double in the bottom of fifth. Kyle LaVinge followed and he grounded to Yanakopoulos at shortstop. As Yanakopoulos was fielding the ball, Knight collided with him and was he ruled out. Dunphy then had apparently picked LaVinge off first and he broke for second. Copa’s throw hit him off the helmet and skipped into right-center allowing him to go to third. Dunphy kept the Chiefs in the lead when he got Mac Jacobson to ground to Copa to end the inning.

The Chiefs took advantage of a couple of errors and scored three unearned runs in the sixth inning to take a 4-0 lead. Barbati reached on an infield error, was sacrificed to second by Witkowski, and moved to third on a passed ball. Peter Copa then walked before Lueders struck out Andre for the second out. The Chiefs caught a break when Knight’s throw on DiCato’s grounder to second pulled Forman off the bag allowing Barbati to score. Both Copa and DiCato moved to second and third on a wild pitch and Matt Boleski made it a 4-0 game when he dropped a single into short right field.

The Reds came back and picked up three runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth. Feliciano drew a leadoff walk before Dunphy got Sean Callahan to fly to deep right for the first out. Forman put the Reds on the board when he tripled down the right field line, scoring Feliciano, to make it 4-1. With the Chiefs infield playing back, Pete John picked up an RBI when he grounded out to Yanakopoulos, scoring Forman, to cut the lead to 4-2. More trouble loomed when Dan Chaisson lined a two out double to left. The Reds then picked up an unearned run of their own when Barbati kicked Brennan’s grounder that scored Chaisson, cutting the lead to 4-3.

Lueders kept the Chiefs off the scoreboard in the top of the seventh.

Dunphy recorded his only two strikeouts of the game, as he struck out LaVinge and Jacobson in succession, to open the seventh. Barbati then made amends for his sixth inning miscue when he a made an outstanding over the shoulder grab of a Feliciano blooper in short centerfield to end the game.

Dunphy needed just 78 pitches to raise his record to 4-3 on the year. Dama (1-2) took the loss for Watertown.

With the win, the first place Chiefs go to 18-5 on the season while the third place Reds dip to 12-10-1.