Andre Chiefs

Medford, MA- Tim Dunphy weathered a bizarre first inning, a couple of Chiefs’ fielding miscues, and then engineered a trifecta of late game escapes that would have made the Anglin Brothers proud. Dunphy’s effort, a couple of downpours, a rainbow, and a game played in an hour and fourteen minutes, all somehow added up at the end of the day to the Chiefs eighth straight win, a 2-1 victory over the Arlington Trojans at Tufts University.

With ominous skies serving as a fitting backdrop, Dunphy and his Chiefs survived a peculiar first inning. Jeff Freidman led things off with an opposite field double down the right field line. Derek Pizarro followed and blooped a single to right that moved Friedman to third. Dunphy then caught Pizarro off first and a rundown ensued and he was tagged out with Friedman remaining at third. Tommy Lenane then singled to right, and Friedman, thinking the ball may be caught, went to tag up. Matt Boleski fielded the ball so quickly that Friedman had to hold at third. It looked as if Dunphy and the Chiefs may escape the inning without allowing a run when Marcus Way hit a tailor made double play ball to Mike Barbati at second base. The ball hit the lip of the infield grass and bounced high over Barbati’s head for a bad hop single, the Trojan’s fourth straight hit to open the game, and a 1-0 lead. With runners back on the corners again, Dunphy shook off the bad luck and came right back to get Dave Cunningham to hit another grounder. This time the Chiefs turned their second chance into a 6-4-3 inning ending doubleplay.

Joe Curran blanked the Chiefs in the bottom of the first and Dunphy enjoyed a much easier 1-2-3 top of the second.

The Chiefs got the game winning runs in the bottom of the second. Mike Andre walked and Chad Conner reached on an infield single. Barbati moved both runners up a base with a sacrifice bunt before Boleski plated both Andre and Conner with a single to center.

The game moved rapidly over the next two innings as Dunphy retired the Arlington side in order in both the third and fourth. Curran was breezing as well, allowing only a fourth inning single to Andre.

Dunphy pulled escape #1 when Joe Bradlee reached on a Paul Yanakopoulos error leading off the fifth inning. Justin Mansfield bunted Bradlee to second and he went to third on Dan Fitzgerald's grounder. Dunphy kept the Chiefs in the lead when he struck out Matt McDermitt to end the inning.

Curran set down the Chiefs in order in the bottom of the fifth and the Trojans threatened again in the top of the sixth. For the second inning in a row, the Trojans got their leadoff man on base via a Chiefs’ error when Andre booted Friedman’s grounder at first base. Pizarro was next and when Dunphy fielded his bunt, he threw low and actually hit the first base bag and everyone was safe. With runners at first and second, the Chiefs got another big doubleplay when Lenane bounced into a Yanakopoulos-unassisted to Andre twin killing. With Friedman standing at third, Dunphy finalized escape #2 when he struck out Way to end the inning.

Curran had no problem with the Chiefs in the bottom of the sixth and Dunphy saved his best for last in the top of the seventh. The Trojans looked poised to tie things up when Cunningham led off with long triple to straight-away center. With the Chiefs infield drawn in, Dunphy got the first out when Bradlee grounded to Yanakopoulos at shortstop. Dunphy then recorded his biggest strikeout of the game when he K’d Mansfield for the second out. The count went full to Fitzgerald before he hit a chopper in front of the plate that Conner pounced on and threw the DH out at first, ending the ballgame and concluding Dunphy’s escape # 3.

With the win, Dunphy upped his record to 5-3 on the season. He surrendered six hits and struck out four. Curran was the tough luck loser and his record dipped to 0-4.

The 22-5 Chiefs host the Mooney Dental Tanners in a twi-night doubleheader on Monday at Maplewood Park (Malden Catholic) starting at 6:30 PM.