Announcement
Epic Championship Game Three Brings 2015 Season to a Close
Melrose,
MA –
It was the baseball equivalent of Ali vs. Frazier, Hagler vs. Hearns, or
Marciano vs. Charles. The Lexington Blue Sox and Andre Chiefs stood toe-to-toe
and exchanged blows before the Blue Sox Josue Feliciano delivered the knockout
punch in the bottom of the ninth to give the Sox a 16-15 victory and the title.
Both teams appeared to be down and out only to get back up and rally to keep
going what will go down as one the greatest playoff games in league history.
Down 15-14 after the Chiefs scored in the top of the ninth, the Blue Sox had
one more rally in them finally bringing the season to a close.
Ross Curley led off with a double to center and took third on the overthrow by
Chiefs center fielder Tony Serino. With the squeeze play on, Garret Smith
bunted down the first line and as Curley crossed the plate with the tying run,
Smith was safe when his bunt hit the first base bag and rolled into fair
territory. Mike Hart reached on an infield single to put runners on first and
second. Dan Graham lifted a fly ball to center and both runners tagged and
moved up a base. The Chiefs appealed that Smith had left the base early and the
umpire ruled him out for the second out of the inning. The Chiefs intentionally
walked Steve Gath and John Puttress worked a walk on a 3-2 pitch to load the
bases. All of this coming against the Chiefs ace Jared Freni in his third
inning of relief work. This set the stage for Feliciano, who bunted for a
single to start the Sox seventh inning rally. After swinging at the first pitch,
he then bunted the next pitch down the first base line and as Hart raced home
with the winning run, Feliciano slid into first to avoid the tag and give the
Sox the championship.
No matter how you measure the game, it will go down as an epic battle. Game Three
started on Thursday August 20 at 8:36 p.m. After almost three hours of playing,
a 29-minute delay occurred when the outfield sprinklers came on. With no way to
turn them off, the game was suspended and would be resumed on Friday night at
7:00 p.m. Mother Nature intervened and the game was rained out and postponed
until Sunday at 5:00 p.m. Finally, 67 hours and 45 minutes after the game began
play started again. The teams played three more innings that took an hour and
16 minutes to play. The game took at total of 4:40 to play including the
29-minute delay. From first pitch to last play was a total of 68 hours and one
minute, or almost three days.
Besides being epic in time, the teams combined for 31 runs, 40 hits, five
doubles, three home runs, 15 walks, 16 strikeouts and the nine moundsmen threw
450 pitches, 281 for strikes. The Chiefs and Sox left a combined 33 runners on
base, including the bases loaded seven times. The third and eighth innings were
the only ones in which neither team scored and both teams scored in five of the
innings. In the 18 innings played, there was only one 1-2-3 inning, the Chiefs
fifth authored by Lexington starter Alsis Herrera.
In the first five innings, the teams combined scored 14 runs with Lexington
holding a 9-5 lead. In the final four innings, the teams combined to score 17
runs, which included seven runs by the Chiefs in the sixth inning.
That is where we will start this part of the story. With the Blue Sox leading
9-5 and six outs away from victory, it seemed the Chiefs were down and almost
out. Someone forget to tell them that as they put together a rally for the ages
with eight straight batters reaching base after the frame started with a
strikeout. Juan Portes drove in the first run with his fourth hit of the game.
Mike Burgoyne had an RBI fielder’s choice and Mike Barbati followed with an RBI
single that knotted the game at 9-9. With the bases loaded, a run scored when
pitcher Mike DiCato was hit by a pitch. Three Blue Sox errors also contributed
to the Chiefs rally, as all of them directly leading to runs.
The Sox kept battling and worked two walks off of Chiefs ace Freni, the last
one to Graham that brought in Adie to cut the lead to 12-10.
The game went to the top of the seventh and Johnny Welch had a 2-2 count on him
when the sprinklers came on halting the action and leading to the suspension of
the game.
Now we move to late Sunday afternoon and play finally resumes. Only to see the
Chiefs have to make another move. Witkowski worked a walk and two pitches later
came home on Portes fifth hit of the night, a two-run home run to left that
give the Chiefs a 14-10 lead.
Now Lexington appeared to be down and facing one of the best pitchers in the
league had to score at least four runs to keep playing. An offense that had
scored 192 runs in the regular season was up to the task. Feliciano began with
a bunt single and went to third on Kevin Davis’ single to right. Adie followed
with a single up the middle to score Feliciano and it was 14-11. A pair of ground
outs to the Mike Barbati moved the runners up with the second one driving in
Davis for a 14-12 score. On an 0-1 count Hart drove a Freni fastball to left
that just cleared the leap of Chiefs left fielder Burgoyne for a 2-run home run
that tied the score at 14-14.
The Chiefs loaded the bases in the eighth with one out, but could not
capitalize. Witkowski was retired on a foul pop up to third baseman Curley and
Portes was set down for the first time in the game on a come-backer to Blue Sox
hurler Aidan Freeburg, the ninth pitcher of the game.
Freni struck out the side in the bottom of the eighth, but did allow a two out
single.
In the top of the ninth, the Chiefs retook the lead for the third time.
Burgoyne began with a single to right, stole second base, and Barbati
sacrificed him to third. He then scored on Serino’s single to center past a
drawn-in infield to make it 15-14. Freeburg struck out the last two batters to
give his teammates another shot at coming back.
Now back to the beginning of our story.
The Chiefs struck quickly scoring twice in the top of the first scoring on RBI
singles by Welch and Portes. Lexington came right back with a lead-off home run
by Adie, his second in as many nights and then a two-run double by Jeff Vigurs
to take a 3-2 lead. After Mike Gedman’s RBI double in the top of the second
tied the game at 3-3, the Sox responded with three more runs on two sacrifice
flies and an RBI single by Curley. Portes drove in two more for the Chiefs with
a double in the fourth and Lexington came back with another three spot in the
fifth courtesy of Hart’s RBI single, a bases-loaded walk to Dorian Rojas, and
an error.
This was the fifth straight finals meeting between these two teams and
Lexington now hold a 3-2 lead in that run. The teams have won the last nine
league championships.
While the 2015 Intercity League season has come to close
and the lights are turned off for the final time the fans will have plenty to
talk about over the offseason as they remember the great finish to the 2015
season.
For a complete box score and play-by-play please go to http://www.pointstreak.com/baseball/scoreboard.html?leagueid=789.
Coverage provided by Bruce Hack with contributions from Bruce Tillman, Anthony Greco & www.pointstreak.com