Andre Chiefs

Arlington, MA- Tim Dunphy went 5.1 innings to get his fourth win of the year and the Chiefs knocked out 10 hits on route to a 10-3 win over the Trojans in Arlington on Friday night.

The game was scoreless over the first two innings as Dunphy and Arlington ace Graham Stack both tossed two shutout frames.

That changed for both teams in the third as each picked up three runs. The Chiefs sent nine batters to the plate in the top of the inning to take a 3-0 lead. Mike Burgoyne and Paul Yanakopulos both singled with one out and the two then executed a double steal. Juan Portes followed and drove home Burgoyne with the first run with a sacrifice fly to left. Stack experienced some control issues and walked Mike Gedman, hit Peter Copa with a pitch, and then walked Ryan Sonberg, forcing in Yanakopulos, to make it 2-0. A Mike Barbati RBI single then drove home Gedman to give the Chiefs a 3-0 lead.

The Trojans took advantage of some shoddy Chiefs’ defense in the bottom of the inning to come right back and knot the score at three each and probably would have taken the lead if not for a costly base running blunder. Isiah Berg led the inning off with a single and was subsequently picked off first by Dunphy for the first out. That proved to be large when Reme Portis followed with another single and Kyle Bourdias reached on a rare miscue by Copa at first allowing Portis to score. Tom Russo then drew the Trojans to within a run at 3-2 with single to right-center. When Yanakopulos got his feet tangled up when fielding Dan Kelly’s grounder to third, the Trojans pulled even at 3-3.

The Chiefs answered quickly and took back the lead at 5-3 in the top of the fourth. Burgoyne reached on a one out fielder’s choice, Yanakopulos doubled, Portes singled, and Gedman drove in Yanakopulos with a groundout.

Dunphy retired the Arlington side in order on four pitches in the bottom of the fourth inning.

The lead went to 6-3 in in the fifth when Barbati drew a walk, stole second, and scored on Burgoyne’s RBI single to right-center.

Bourdias led off the Arlington fifth with a single before Sonberg turned in what arguably may be the defensive play of the year thus far. The former Bates College standout made a diving snag of a Coiley line shot headed to centerfield, scrambled to his feet, and fired a strike to Copa to double off Bourdias.

The Chiefs moved the lead to 7-3 in the top of the sixth. Copa worked a one out walk and Sonberg followed with a liner to left-center. When Sonberg got caught up between first and second trying to stretch the hit to a double, Copa scampered home during the subsequent rundown with the seventh run.

After Dunphy got Kelly to groundout to Sonberg to open the bottom of the sixth, he surrendered a single to Morgan Brown and gave way to Jared Freni. The Chiefs ace, who was making his second appearance out of the bullpen this week, allowed an infield single to the left of the mound before getting pinch-hitter Marcus Way on grounder for the second out. Freni then struck out Berg to end the inning and send the game into the seventh.

The Chiefs picked up three more runs and the lead went to 10-3 in the top of the seventh. Singles by Burgoyne and Portes, two hit batsman, and two walks off reliever Nick Pascucci accounted for the scoring.

Lefty Mitchell Clegg finished things up for the Chiefs when he set down the Arlington side in order in the bottom of the seventh.

The 15-4 Chiefs are off for the weekend and return to action to begin a busy week on Monday when they host the Watertown Reds at Maplewood Park on the campus of Malden Catholic at 8:15 PM.