Andre Chiefs

Lexington, MA- Mike Gedman came on with the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the sixth inning and proceeded to retire all four batters he faced, including two K’s, to keep the Chiefs’ lead intact in a 5-3 win over the Blue Sox on Sunday night. Gedman’s save preserved the win for fellow southpaw Tim Dunphy, who raised his record to 8-1 on the year.

With the road win, the Chiefs’ secured themselves a playoff bye and leapfrogged both the Blue Sox and Watertown Reds and moved into first place. The regular season concludes on Monday night with a rare three team doubleheader at Maplewood. The Chiefs meet the Wakefield Merchants at 6:45 PM and will play the Blue Sox again immediately following.

In Sunday’s game, the Chiefs jumped on Lexington starter Jimmy Hill for a couple for runs in the first inning. Tony Serino got things underway when he led off the game with an opposite field double down the leftfield line. Paul Yanakopulos then grounded to Steve Gath at shortstop for the first out. Billy Mottram gave the Chiefs a quick lead with a line single to right-center, scoring Serino. Hill then hit Welch and walked Gedman to load the bases. Peter Copa popped up for the second out and Hill’s wildness continued when he walked Mike Barbati with the bases loaded to make it 2-0. Hill escaped further damage when he struck out Mike Andre swinging on a 3-2 pitch to end the inning.

Tommy McKenna was thrown out by Dunphy trying to bunt his way aboard leading off the bottom of the first. Ross Curley then singled before Mottram made a Sports Center worthy stop of a Gath seed to third, fired to second to force Curley, but Barbati’s throw to first was low and skipped by Copa. With Gath at standing at second, Dunphy got Dave Ahern to groundout to Johnny Welch to send the game to the second inning.

Offense abandoned both clubs over the next three frames as Hill settled down and retired the Chiefs in order in the second, third, and fourth. Dunphy was equally as tough, as he faced the minimum of nine batters over the bottom of those innings. The only runner to reach base was when Dunphy walked Gath with one out in the fourth. Gath was dispatched when Ahern hit into a 4-6-3 doubleplay.

The Chiefs made some bigtime two out noise in the top of the fifth inning. Yanakopulos lined a single to left and Mottram followed with a double into the rightfield corner. Welch then send a 1-1 Hill pitch deep into the left-center field night, giving the Chiefs a 5-0 lead. For Welch, it was his league leading 8th homer of the year and his fourth in the last four games.

The Blue Sox closed the gap to 5-3 in the bottom of the fifth. Dan Graham led things off with a single to left. Mike Hart then lined a single to right with Graham stopping at second. The Blue Sox then caught a break when Justin Silvestro’s potential doubleplay grounder took a bad hop and Lexington was in business with the bases loaded and nobody out. In one of the more bizarre plays of the year, Tommy Haugh hit a chopper off the plate that went over Copa’s head at first and into short rightfield with Graham and Hart scoring. When Haugh got caught and then was tagged out in a rundown between first and second, Silvestro broke for the plate and scored the third Lexington run. Dunphy regained his form and got John Puttress and McKenna to both ground out as the game headed to the sixth with Chiefs’ holding a 5-3 lead.

Aidan Freeburg came out of the Lexington bullpen and got Copa and Barbati on fly balls and Andre on a groundout in a 1-2-3 top of the sixth.

Curley lined a single to left to begin the Blue Sox sixth. Serino turned in what perhaps is the Chiefs’ defensive play of the year, when he made a spectacular diving grab of a Gath shot that was labeled for the right-center field gap. Serino got to his feet and fired a strike to Barbati, who made a perfect relay to Copa to double off Curley at first. That play turned out to be even bigger when Ahern lined Dunphy’s next pitch for a double. That signaled the end of the night for Dunphy who gave way to Gedman. Gedman went 2-2 on the always dangerous Graham before getting him swinging to end the inning.

Mike Burgoyne reached on an error by Silvestro to lead off the Chiefs’ seventh. Serino then bunted Burgoyne to second and he went to third on a wild pitch. Freeberg recorded two big strikeouts and kept it a two run game when he got both Yanakopulos and Mottram both swinging.

Gedman was in control in the seventh striking out Hart swinging and then getting Silvestro and Haugh on infield grounders.

The Chiefs in winning their seventh straight game, saw their record climb to 22-6 on the year.
(Bruce Tillman for www.andrechiefs.com, Bruce Hack- boxscore & stats, Jim Valente-photos)