Andre Chiefs

Malden, MA- Arlington southpaw Brian Chaput fired a complete game shutout when the Trojans blanked the Chiefs in the regular season finale 3-0 at Maplewood Park on Wednesday night. Chaput struck out a season high 13 batters and in the process brought the curtain down on the Chiefs 10 game winning streak.

The Trojans scored single runs in the third, fifth, and sixth innings off Chiefs’ starter Mike DiCato, who looked sharp despite taking the loss.

Derek Pizaro’s RBI single drove in Justin Mansfield, who had doubled, in the third. Pizaro also drove in Arlington’s second run in the fifth inning when he beat the relay to first on the back end of a doubleplay, scoring Joe Bradlee who led off the inning with a double. The Trojans final run came in the top of the sixth when Marcus Way walked, stole second, moved to third on a fielder’s choice, and scored when Tony Deshler, who was playing third late in the game, threw high to first on Dan Csaplar’s ground ball.

Peter Copa and Chad Conner led the Chiefs with two hits each while Mike Barbati, Corey Brammer and Paul Yanakouplos had a hit each.

Chaput (4-0), the former Eastern Connecticut hurler, who pitched on the Independent League circuit over the past few seasons, earned his fourth straight ICL win. He has struck out 37 batters in 28 innings and has allowed just one earned run.

DiCato (3-3), gave up just six hits, two earned runs, and struck out half a dozen in his six innings. Lefty John Chotkowski came on to work a scoreless seventh, striking out two batters.

The Chiefs wrap up the regular season with a 24-6 record, a regular season pennant, and a first round playoff bye already tucked away. They will await their opponent from the first round of the ICL’s playoffs, which will begin on Sunday.The earliest the defending champion Chiefs could begin their best of five semi-final series would be Tuesday night.