Andre Chiefs

Malden, MA- Jared Freni tossed 6.1 innings of one-hit baseball and Mike Gedman broke a scoreless tie with a two run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning when the Chiefs found their rhythm late and went on to beat the Wakefield Merchants 8-0 at Pine Banks.

With the win, the Chiefs move on in the winner’s bracket of the ICL's double elimination playoff tournament. They will now host the Lexington Blue Sox on Sunday at 8:00 PM at Pine Banks on the Malden/Melrose line. The winner of that game will earn a place in the best of five championship series that begins next week.

Friday’s game had all the early makings of being “just one of those nights”, as the Chiefs stranded eight baserunners in scoring position over the first four innings. Wakefield righty Mike Andrews pulled off four consecutive "Houdini like" escapes, employing some big time clutch pitching while keeping the Chiefs’ side of the ledger blank until Gedman’s homer.

Freni allowed the Merchants’ lone hit of the night to Nick Murray with one out in the top of the first. Murray was then promptly erased when Scott Searles lined into a Mike Barbati to Peter Copa doubleplay to end the inning.

Andrews walked Tony Serino to start the bottom of the first and Paul Yanakopulos’ sacrifice bunt was thrown wide of first by Andrews for an error, putting two runners aboard with nobody out. Andrews then struck out Billy Mottram, got Johnny Welch on a shallow fly, before Gedman flew to the warning track in left-center to complete escape number one.

The Merchants went in order in the top of the second before Andrews sent the Chiefs home empty handed again in the bottom of the inning. Peter Copa drew a leadoff walk and went to third on Mike Andre’s single. Andre took second on the throw to try and get Copa at third and the Chiefs’ appeared to be cooking with men on second and third with no outs. Andrews came up “extra” big when he struck out Barbati, Mike Burgoyne, and Serino in succession to keep it a 0-0 game.

Wakefield got a runner in scoring position in the top of third. Freni hit Lou Tarantino with two outs and he proceeded to move to second on a breaking ball in the dirt. But it remained scoreless when Freni struck out Bobby Lossano swinging for the final out of the inning.

The Chiefs threatened once again in the bottom of the third. Andrews issued another inning opening base on balls, this time to Yanokopulos. Mottram followed and dropped a single down the left-field line. Andrews pitched out of his third straight jam by striking out Welch, getting Gedman on an infield grounder with the runners moving to second and third, and then striking out Copa on a breaking ball.

Freni struck out the Merchants’ side, sandwiched around a walk to James Ramsey, in the top of the fourth.

Round four of frustration came when Andrews thwarted the Chiefs one more time in the bottom of the fourth. After Andre lined to Jon Davison at first, Barbati and Burgoyne reached on consecutive singles. Both runners then moved up to second and third on Serino’s infield grounder to the right side. The Chiefs came up bare once again when Searles made a nice play of a Yanakopulos grounder in the shortstop hole and threw him out at first on a bang-bang play.

The Merchants got their second runner of the night into scoring position in the top of the fifth. Freni issued a free pass to Nick Napoli and Davison bunted him to second. The Merchants also couldn’t break the scoring ice as Joe Barry struck out and Tarantino grounded to Copa, to send the scoreless game to the bottom of the fifth.

Andrews got Mottram to fly to Tarantino in right for the first out of the fifth. Welch followed and tomahawked a single to left. Gedman was next and he finally got the Chiefs on the board when he cranked his two run homer to straightaway center.

The Merchants went quietly the top of the sixth before the Chiefs erupted for six runs to finally put the game away in their half of the inning. Barbati got things going with a single to center and Burgoyne bunted him to second. Serino then upped the lead to 3-0 with a single to left that scored Barbati. Yanakopulos drew a walk and John Russlillo came on in relief of Andrews. Russolillo walked Mottram to load the bases for Welch. The clean-up hitter then drilled a laser double just inside the third base bag that scored Serino and Yanakopulos to make it 5-0. Russolillo then uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Mottram to score the sixth run. Gedman picked up his third RBI of the evening when he reached on an infield single, scoring Welch, to run the lead to 7-0. Copa then drew another walk, and Andre followed with his second single of the game, to re-load the bases. Barbati picked up an RBI with an infield grounder, scoring Gedman, to make it 8-0.

Freni got Kevin Mortimer on a groundout for the first out of the seventh before giving way to Gedman. The big southpaw got Napoli on an infield chopper before striking out Davison to end the game.

Freni struck out eight and walked three. With the win he raised his overall 2014 record to 9-2.

Andrews gave up eight of the Chiefs’ eleven hits in 5.1 innings of work, struck out six, and walked four.

ICL PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
SUNDAY, AUGUST 17
# 5 Wakefield Merchants at # 4 Reading Bulldogs- Morton Field, Reading 4:00 PM-Loser eliminated.
# 6 Melrose Ameriacns at # 3 Watertown Reds-Victory Field, Watertown 5:00 PM-Loser eliminated
# 2 Lexington Blue Sox at # 1 Andre Chiefs-Pine Banks, Malden 8:00 PM
(Pine Banks is located on the Malden/Melrose line at approximately 100 Main St, Melrose MA 02176) 

(Bruce Tillman for www.andrechiefs.com Photos by Jim Valente)