Andre Chiefs

Malden, MA- The Chiefs scored three times in the bottom of the fifth inning, to break a 1-1 tie, and went on to beat the Arlington Trjoans 4-1 in an all-southpaw pitching battle at Maplewood on Monday night.

Mitchell Clegg and former Chief Evan Walsh hooked up in a pretty decent pitching duel for 4 1/2 innings until the Chiefs broke through with the game winning runs.

Arlington looked poised to take an early lead when Owen Shea and Kyle Bourdrais opened the game with singles. Clegg got the first two outs of the inning when he got Kyle Hood to pop up and Morgan Brown to groundout. Second baseman Steve Gambale then turned in the web gem of the night when he robbed Ben Johnston of a least an RBI single with a sliding grab of a blooper down the rightfield line.

Walsh retired the Chiefs' side in order in the bottom of the first and both sides went quietly in the second inning.

The Trojans broke the scoring ice in the top of the third. Clegg issued his only walk of the night to Shea and he promptly stole second. After a flyout, Kyle Hood gave the visitors a 1-0 lead with a double into the leftfield corner. That's all the Trojans would get as Clegg struck out Brown prior to Johnston bouncing to Gambale to end the inning.

The Chiefs tied things up when they scored a run in the bottom of the third. Mike Burgoyne singled with two away and moved to second on a wild pitch. Mike DiCato followed and drove Burgoyne home with a single to right.

Nothing happening for either team in the fourth inning and Clegg got the Trojans in order on three groundouts in the top of the fifth.

Hood made a nice diving stop of Mike Andre's hard grounder but couldn't throw him out from his knees at first to open the bottom of the fifth. Adam Lucey came on to pinch run and immediately moved to second on a passed ball. Gambale followed with a high chopper between the mound and first that Brown charged and fired to third to just miss throwing out the sliding Lucey on a close play. With runners on the corners, Burgoyne delivered the loudest hit of the night when he doubled to left-center, scoring both Lucey and Gambale, and then went to third when the throw home went astray. After Walsh got DiCato to groundout, Burgoyne used some heady baserunning on a Sonberg bouncer to third, waiting for Bourdaris to throw to first before using his speed to slide home with the Chiefs' fourth run.

After a one out Johnston single in the top of the sixth, a Billy Mottram to Gambale to Peter Copa 5-4-3 doubleplay retired the Arlington side.

Walsh got the Chiefs on three straight infield grounders in the bottom of the sixth (Jordan Pallazola, Nate Witkowski, and pinch-hitter Sammy Wishnow).

Clegg struck out the first two batters of the seventh before Ryan Hood reached on an infield single. Clegg closed out the game when he got Shea to pop up to Gambale.  

With the complete game 76 pitch effort, Clegg evened his season mark to 3-3. He struck out six and scattered seven hits.

Walsh allowed just six hits and struck out three while falling to 0-4 on the year.  

Chiefs Chatter....The 14-6-1 Chiefs are off on Tuesday and return to Maplewood to host the Lexington Blue Sox on Wednesday at 8:15 PM. The Blue Sox edged the Reading Bulldogs 3-2 on Monday night in Lexington....With Monday's win, the Chiefs assured themselves of a winning season for the ninth straight year and the 51st time in 53 seasons.....
Courtesy Jim Valente