Announcement
Clegg and Chiefs Overtake Blue Sox in 6-3 Final at Maplewood
Malden, MA- Mitchell Clegg overcame a arduous begining, allowing two runs and five hits over the first two innings, before throwing four straight scoreless frames of one hit baseball to allow the Chiefs to rally past the Lexington Blue Sox 6-3 on Wednesday night at Maplewood. With their eighth win in the last nine games, the now 9-2 Chiefs maintain sole possession of first place in the ICL.
Both Clegg and Blue Sox starter Aidan Freeburg tossed blanks in the first inning before Lexington took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second. Dorian Rojas deposited the first pitch he saw from Clegg over the right-centerfield fence for a 1-0 lead. Singles by Kevin Davis and Alex Voitik, sandwiched around a walk to Tom Russo, loaded the bases with nobody out. Josh Hassel then hit a long sacrifice fly to left, scoring Davis and putting the Sox up by two. Clegg got the inning's second out when he struck out Jeff Vigurs. Ross Curley was next and he hit a fielder's choice grounder into the shortstop hole on which Voitik beat Steve Gambale's throw to second to re-load the bases. Clegg got a big out and kept the deficit at two runs when Justin Silvestro hit a sharp grounder to Mike Barbati at second.
The Chiefs cut the margin in half in to 2-1 the bottom of the second when Jordan Pallazola led off the inning with his second homer of the season to center.
After Clegg breezed through the top of the third his mates took advantage of some uncharacteristicly generous Lexington defense to take the lead in bottom of the inning. Singles by Mike Burgoyne and Gambale along with two Blue Sox infield errors handed the Chiefs a couple of runs and a 3-2 lead.
Clegg retired the side in order in the top of fourth. Singles from Barbati and Gambale, two more Lexington errors, and a triple from Danny DiMare, accounted for three more runs and 6-2 Chiefs' lead at the end of four.
Clegg and Lexington reliever Alsis Herrera kept it a 6-2 score as the game moved to the top of the seventh.
Nate Witkowski turned in the defensive gem of the night when he gloved a Ryan McCarthy missle to shortstop and threw him out at first leading off the seventh. Jeff Vigurs followed and singled to center before Clegg put the Sox down to their last out when he got Curley to fly to Serino in center. Lexington would not go easy as Silvestro drilled a triple into the rightfield corner, scoring Vigurs, to cut the lead to 6-3. Anthony Sullivan came out of the Chiefs' bullpen and walked Julian Alvarez on a close full count pitch, and then Rojas, to load the bases and bring Davis to the plate representing the go-ahead run. The former Bates standout ran the count to 2-2 before Sullivan struck him out swinging with a fastball to seal the win.
Clegg (2-0) struck out three and allowed seven hits, only two after the second inning. The Former Washington Nationals' left-hander threw 97 pitches, 65 for strikes, in his 6.2 innings. Freeberg (2-1) suffered his first loss of the season.
