Andre Chiefs

Medford- His first hit came in 1994 on a rainy night at Alumni Stadium in Lowell when he was a shy 18 year old rookie a few days removed from his Medford High graduation.

His 500th came via a RBI double in the first inning of Thursday’s 4-1 win (see game story below) against the Arlington Trojans at Tufts University.

In his almost fifteen Chiefs seasons in between, Justin Crisafulli established himself as one the greatest and most feared Chiefs and ICL hitters of all time.
 
Crisafulli reached the lofty ICL 500 hit plateau with a RBI double to the right-centerfield gap and now trails only the retired Mike Langston (538), on the Chiefs all time hit list.

Along the way, Justin has ripped 87 home runs and knocked in 384 runs. Add to those impressive totals the fact that he has a career .342 batting average, it becomes obvious to see why he is considered among one of the Intercity League's all time best. And for Chiefs fans the good news is that he is still going strong and he will be atop every Chiefs batting record before he hangs up the spikes and his number 33 is hung up and retired. 

To put Crisafulli’s longevity and career accomplishment’s into focus, on the night he recorded his first hit, veteran third baseman Mike Andre, who batted just before Crisafulli, was the seven year old Chiefs bat-boy. Peter Copa, who scored on last night’s double, was a six year old first-grader. Major League Baseball players had just voted to cancel the remainder of the 1994 season and the California Highway Patrol was chasing O.J. Simpson’s Ford Bronco through the streets of Los Angeles.

Crisafulli emerged as a star at Medford High School in the early 1990's. His baseball ability was not limited to the plate as he was considered one of the state's top high school pitchers of that era. In fact, he was actually selected by the Boston Red Sox as a pitcher in the 17th round of the 1995 major league draft. He opted to attend Western Arizona Junior College instead. That decision rewarded him with a trip to the JUCO World Series. Following his career in Arizona, Crisafulli accepted a baseball scholarship to Divison II powerhouse Central Missouri State and once again was playing for post season honors, this time in the D-2 World Series.

After one of the most incredible individual ICL season's of all time, when he hit a remarkable .515 (70 for 136) with 13 homers and 57 RBI's, leading the Chiefs to a 36-6 record and another championship, Justin signed with the Cleveland Indians on the day the 1997 ICL season ended.

At 34, Justin can still put fear into ICL pitchers. Although his home runs totals have decreased, along with the rest of the ICL, since the league's wood bat era began in 2002, he still can take it out of the yard at anytime.

A "True Chief" in every sense of the term, Crisafulli is the elder statesman of the Chiefs franchise.He has played a major part of four ICL championships and seven regular season flags. When his playing days are over, he will be remembered as not only one of the greatest hitter's in ICL history, but also one of the most classiest guys to ever to wear the Chiefs uniform.

 Justin Crisafulli's Road to 500 Chiefs Hits

*-2010 thru first 16 games

Medford, MA- Justin Crisafulli recorded his 500th career hit, (see seperate story) a first inning RBI double, and the Chiefs made four first inning runs stand up, in a 4-1 win over the Arlington Trojans at Tufts University.

Mike DiCato (3-0) threw a neat four hitter, in a game that took only one hour and eighteen minutes to complete. Along with Crisafulli’s double, Hal Landers and Matt Boleski had first inning two-base hits and Peter Copa, Bob McCarthy, Mike Andre, and Mike Barbati added singles.

Trojans’ starter Mike Griffin (1-2) settled in nicely after the rocky first inning and threw shutout ball the rest of the way.

Arlington rookie Greg Wilson broke up DiCato’s shutout bid with a solo homer in the sixth.

DiCato, struck out four and needed only 74 pitches to complete his night's work. The former UMass-Amherst and Malden Catholic standout was aided by some outstanding defense as his infield mates turend three doubleplays. The final out of the game was made on a spectacular play by Chiefs shortstop Tony Deshler.

The Chiefs, now 12-3-2, will enjoy the traditional July 4th Break and return to action next Wednesday when they travel to Lexington to meet the Blue Sox at 8:00 PM.

Watertown, MA- The Chiefs rallied for four runs in the top of the seventh inning, all with two out and nobody on base, to break a 1-1 tie and send them home from Watertown with a 5-1 win.

Tony Deshler got things going in the seventh when he blooped a two out single to right off Reds starter Charlie DeFrancesco. Deshler went to second on a wild pitch and Hal Landers delivered him with the go ahead run when he doubled to left-center just out of the reach of the diving Josh Chasse. Catcher Bob McCarthy followed and lined a single to right scoring Landers to give the Chiefs 3-1 lead. Brendan Casey replaced DeFrancesco and Mike Baillargeon greeted him with his fifth homer of the year, a two run shot over the left field wall making it 5-1.

On the other side of the ledger, Dylan Ellis was outstanding once again on the mound and raised his record to 5-0 on the season. The former Merrimack College southpaw allowed only a second inning unearned run and scattered three hits on the night. He struck out a season high ten batters, and retired the last ten men he faced in row.

Watertown took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning when veteran Steve Busby drilled a one out double to right. Bryan Evans followed with a chopper to Baillargeon at shortstop which he charged and threw low to first allowing Busby to score.

The Chiefs tied the game in the top of the third when Brian Macrina led off with a gap shot double to left-center. Deshler bunted Macrina to third and Landers RBI groundout to second scored him with the equalizer.

Jared Freni (1-1) will get the start when the 10-3-1 Chiefs host the Reading Bulldogs on Wednesday night at 6:00 PM at Tufts University.

Medford, MA- Jared Freni struck out ten in six innings of work, Mike Andre hit a three run homer and had four RBI’s and veteran Justin Crisafulli added a solo home run, to power the Chiefs past the Reading Bulldogs 9-4 at Tufts University on Wednesday.

Freni, who previously starred at UMass-Amherst, allowed just four hits and raised his record to 2-1 on the season.

Andre, who co-captained Merrimack College in 2009, went two for four including his sixth inning homer over the right field wall. For Crisafulli, it was the 87^th homer of his long ICL career. The former Cleveland Indians slugger now has 499 hits in a Chiefs uniform.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning as Bryant University’s Brian O’Neil matched Freni pitch for pitch until Crisafulli deposited his solo shot over the left field wall.

The Chiefs scored five times in the fifth inning on singles by Hal Landers, Bob McCarthy, Andre (RBI), Peter Copa, Matt Anderson and Crisafulli.

It quickly went to 9-1 in the bottom of sixth inning when Andre’s homer scored McCarthy and Brandeis University's Tony Deshler ahead of him.

Rob Machado came out of the Chiefs’ bullpen to begin the seventh and got touched up for a bases clearing double from Pete Castoldi that accounted for the 9-4 final.

Worcester, MA- Chiefs infielder Mike Baillargeon of Worcester signed a professional contract with the Worcester Tornadoes of the Can-Am League on Wednesday. Baillargeon was hitting a lofty .385 with five homers and 14 RBI, thru the first fifteen games of the Chiefs season.

Baillargeon hit a two run homer for the Chiefs at Watertown late Tuesday night and the Tornadoes came calling immediately after the game. Baillargeon signed a contract on Wednesday morning and was in uniform that night against Pittsfield. He has gone 0-2 for the Tornadoes in his first two games. Baillargeon and the Tornadoes are spending the Fourth of July weekend in Canada playing a three game series against Quebec City.

The former Assumption star had previously signed professionally and played winter ball with the Weribee Giants in Australia earlier this year. He was named as the NE-10 Player of the Year in 2009 and selected to the Rawlings Baseball NCAA D-2 All American team and to the NCBW all-America team. Baillargeon was also named to the ECAC D-2, NCBWA, ABCA and Daktronics all East teams. He batted .393 as a college senior with a team-record 84 hits, and 11 homers. He was named  team captain three consecutive years at Assumption and set career marks in games (187), games started(187), at bats(731), hits(267), triples(15) and sacrifice flies (11).

Baillargeon hit .261 for the Chiefs last summer with a homer and nine RBI's in 15 games. He becomes the second Chief to sign this year as centerfielder Jeff Bercume had earlier signed with the Oakland A's. Bercume is currently hitting .242 for Oakland's single A affiliate in Vancouver.

To replace Baillargeon on the active roster, the Chiefs have activated former Cassell slugger Tim Dempsey. Dempsey has been on the DL since the start of the season with a nose fracture. He had previously starred at UConn and later UMass-Lowell and was voted as the 2006 ICL's Playoff MVP when he led Cassell to their first ICL championship. From 2006-2008 Dempsey hit .390 for Cassell with six home runs.