Andre Chiefs

Malden, MA- Jared Freni went the first six innings, striking out a dozen, and Tim Dunphy picked up the seventh inning save, when the Chiefs took a 4-2 win over the Lexington Blue Sox at steamy Maplewood Park on Wednesday night.

For the now 12-3 Chiefs, it was their sixth straight win.

Freni and former Holy Cross right-hander Ryan Filipowicz (2-1), both pitched out of some tight spots and kept the game scoreless over the first three innings.

Freni struck out the Blue Sox side in the top of the fourth and the Chiefs responded and came up with what would prove to be all the runs they would need in the home half of the inning. Filipowicz got the inning started when he hit Peter Copa with a 2-0 pitch. Mike Andre followed and drilled the first pitch he saw into centerfield for a single. When the ball skipped past Taylor Ferguson and went all the way to the fence, Copa scored the first run and Andre found himself standing at second. Nate Witkowski then singled to deep shortstop with Andre having to hold at second. After an unsuccessful sacrifice bunt attempt, Mike Burgoyne’s grounder to Ross Curley at shortstop turned into a productive out when Andre and Witkowski moved up to second and third respectively. With the Lexington infield drawn in, Filipowicz got Nick Leva to ground to Curley for the inning’s second out, with both runners having to hold. With now two away, Tony Serino delivered the game’s biggest hit when he lined a full count Filipowicz fastball to left, scoring Andre and Witkowski, to up the Chiefs lead to 3-0.

The Blue Sox clipped a run off the lead in the top of the fifth when a Curley two out single to right scored Thomas Russo, who had led off the frame with a walk.

Johnny Welch got that run right back in the top of the fifth when he led off and hit a solo shot to left-center, his second of the season, giving the Chiefs a 4-1 lead heading for the sixth.

Russo’s two out single in the top of the sixth, scored Dan Graham, who had walked, to make it a two run lead again at 4-2. Freni kept his team in the lead when he struck out Costello with the tying runs aboard to close the inning.

The Chiefs couldn’t capitalize on a Witkowski leadoff double off reliever Kevin Scanlon in the bottom of the sixth.

Tim Dunphy came on in relief of Freni to begin the top of the seventh. Trouble began to brew when second baseman Shane Stande mishandled Dorian Rojas’ bouncer to start the inning. When Curley followed with a single to right, the Sox had the tying runs on base with nobody out. Clean-up man Julian Alvarez was next, and with the runners on the move, he hit a sharp liner directly at Burgoyne in left, who fired to Stande at second to easily double up Rojas for a huge twin killing. Dunphy then hit Graham with the first pitch he threw to put the tying runs back on base for the second time in the inning. With Jeff Vigurs at the plate, Dunphy ended things when he struck out the lefty swinging on a 1-2 pitch.

Freni (5-2) threw 127 pitches over his six innings of work, 75 of which were strikes. Dunphy, who lowered his ERA to 0.91 over his 15.1 innings so far this season, picked up his first save since July 20, 2012.

Wednesday's game can be followed at http://baseball.pointstreak.com/gamelive/?gameid=422367. The audio replay of the game can be heard on http://www.localsportsproductions.com/live/ with Sam Feeley doing the play by play.

The Chiefs are expected to send veteran southpaw Mitchell Clegg (1-0, 1.31 ERA) to the hill when they travel to Victory Field in Watertown to visit the Reds on Thursday at 7:45 PM.
-Game Stats - Bruce Hack & Pointstreak.com
-Courtesy Bruce Tillman & Ian Roberts