Andre Chiefs

Somerville, MA- The Chiefs used some flawless defense and stormed back from an 8-4 sixth inning deficit, scoring five unanswered runs to beat the first place Cassell Club 9-8 at Trum Field on Wednesday night. 

Righty Mike Parissi got the Chiefs side in order in the first and Cassell threatened big time to make it an early night for the Chiefs in the bottom of the inning. Teddy O’Reilly and Josh Mackey led off with singles against Chiefs starter Joe Martini. Josh Klimkiewicz then drew a full count walk to load the bases with no outs. Jeff Paquette followed and hit a chopper toward third which Mike Andre bare-handed and fired a strike to catcher Matt Lawlor to start a 5-2-3 double play. Martini escaped the jam when Andre when to his left to make another nice play, this time on a Bob McCarthy grounder, and threw out his Merrimack teammate at first by a step. 

The Chiefs responded and took a 2-0 lead in the second on walk to Matt Anderson, a single by Paul Koslowski and two out, two RBI double into the left field corner by Nate Leva. 

Martini got the Cassell side 1-2-3 in the second and the Chiefs upped their lead to 3-0 in the top of the third on consecutive doubles by Brendan Pyburn and Lawlor. 

The hard hitting Cassell Club threw up a five spot against Martini in the bottom of third inning, courtesy of six hits (Matt Sheehan, Mackey, Klimkiewicz, Paquette, Matt Rogers and James Likis) and a walk to grab a 5-3 lead. 

The Chiefs cut the margin to 5-4 in the fourth inning when Andre scored from third on a double play ball off the bat of Leva. 

Jose Pimentel replaced Martini on the mound for the Chiefs in the bottom of the inning and averted more trouble when a “strike him out, throw him out” double play ended the inning and kept the Cassell lead at one run. 

The Chiefs came empty in the top of the fifth and Cassell appeared to put the game away in the home half, scoring three runs against Pimentel to take an 8-4 lead, with the key hits being a Rogers single and an Aaron Santos double.

Connor Bishop came on in relief of Pimental and Lawlor ended a second consecutive inning by throwing out another runner (Sheehan) trying to steal. Three big runs came across for the Chiefs in the sixth as they cut the lead to 8-7. Mike Barbati, pinch hitting for Anderson who left the game an inning earlier with a sore knee, lined a single to right. Andre then bounced out forcing Barbati at second. Koslowski followed with his third straight single and Leva unloaded on a long double to left center scoring Andre to make it 8-5. Matt Boleski then grounded to first on a nice play by Klimkiewicz for the second out before Pyburn hit his third double of the night down the left field line scoring both Leva and Koslowski to make it a 8-7 contest. Lawlor grounded out to end the inning leaving Pyburn stranded at second base as the potential tying run. 

Bishop got O’Reilly to fly to center and Mackey to fly to right to start the sixth before Klimkiewicz singled and was promptly erased at second on another nice throw by Lawlor and a superb pick up tag by Pyburn. 

In the Chiefs seventh, Crisafulli led things off with a sharp single to left and Nick Dunn pinch ran. Andrew Hanson then laid down a sacrifice bunt pushing Dunn to second. Barbati then worked a full count walk to put runners on first and second with one away. Andre followed and tied the game at 8-8 with single to right that scored Dunn with Barbati going to third on the play. Koslowski then gave the Chiefs the lead when he delivered Barbati with a sacrifice fly to center.  

Foundas came on to start the seventh and stuck out Paquette and got McCarthy to ground sharply to Andre at third for two quick outs. Things got a bit interesting when consecutive walks to Rogers and Santos put the tying and winning runs on base before Foundas regained his composure and struck out Likis to end the game. 

Bishop (1-0) picked up the first win of his three year ICL career while Foundas chalked up his fifth save of the season. The Chiefs are off on Thursday and travel to Lexington on Friday night to face the 10-1-2 Blue Sox at 8:00 PM.