Andre Chiefs

Medford, MA- The Testa Corp. Bombers remained red hot and raised their record to 10-3-1, moving into sole possession of second place, with a 4-0 shutout win over the Chiefs at Tufts University on Monday night. It was the second time in as many nights that the Bombers have beaten the Chiefs and the third consecutive time this season. With the loss the Chiefs fall to 7-6-3.

It was obvious early on that Chiefs ace Keith Forbes was not feeling his physical best and the Bombers took advantage. Forbes went just three innings, which was his shortest stint of the season.

The Chiefs offense remained ice cold despite the warm weather, and could not capitalize on eight walks issued by Bombers pitching. The duo of lefty James Palmer (Franklin Pierce) and righty Danny Gomez (Western Oklahoma) surrendered just two hits, a third inning Justin Crisafulli double and a sixth inning Matt Lawlor single.

Starters Palmer and Forbes matched zeros for the first two innings before the Bombers broke through with three third inning runs. Eric Pelletier led off with a walk and Jay Defillipo reached on an infield single that Forbes deflected and was unabled to be handled by shortstop Nate Leva. Forbes then struck out Pete John and got Bob Barrett to fly to left to leave two runners on with two outs. Lefty Jonathan Pollard then drilled a long double to left scoring both Pelletier and Defillipo for a 2-0 Bombers lead. Mike Navarro followed with a line single to center that scored Pollard and increased the lead to 3-0. Forbes averted further trouble when he got Mark Adessa to fly out.

Paul Koslowski replaced Forbes to start the fourth and recorded two strikeouts in the inning. The Bombers reached Koslowski for a run, and a 4-0 lead in the fifth, when John walked, Barrett was hit by a pitch, a double steal and a sacrifice fly from Navarro.

Connor Bishop, making his 16th career appearance for the Chiefs and his first this season, worked a scoreless sixth and Joe Martini did the same for the club in seventh.

The Chiefs had runners on base in every inning but the third, but could not score. The biggest threat came in the bottom of the seventh when Gomez, who came on for Palmer in the sixth, issued three walks to load the bases with two away. He kept the shutout intact when he struck out Leva swinging to end the game.

It does not get any easier for the Chiefs tonight (Tuesday) when the first place Cassell Club (11-1-1) pay a visit to Tufts University at 6:00 PM. The two teams battled to a 0-0 tie last Thursday night. Southpaw Dylan Ellis (Gloucester, MA/Merrimack) is the expected starter for the Chiefs.

Following Tuesday's game, the Chiefs will enjoy the traditional ICL Fourth of July mid season break. They will return to action next Sunday (July 6) when they travel to Walsh Field in Wakefield to meet the Merchants at 5:30 PM.

East Boston, MA- The Testa Corp. Bombers (9-3-1) trounced the Chiefs 10-3 at East Boston Stadium on Sunday evening.

Anthony Del Prete (6 Inn, 6 hits, 8K's) picked up the win to raise his record to 5-1. Jonathan Pollard paced Testa's offense with a three for four evening including a third inning homer. Mike Navarro also had a big night for Testa with three hits. Red hot Nick Martinho (14 RBI's) drilled his league leading fourth home run of season as the Bombers rung up a dozen hits of three Chiefs pitchers including starter David Garcia (0-3) who took the loss.

Nate Leva and Mike Andre (2 RBI's) each had two hits for the Chiefs, who lost their second straight to fall to 7-5-3.
Rookie Mike Barbati knocked in the Chiefs other run with a fifth inning fielders choice. It was Barbati's first career ICL run batted in.

The Bombers and Chiefs will meet again on Monday at 6:00 PM at Tufts University. 

Medford, MA- Rollins College righty Marc Hewett (5-0) chalked up his ICL leading fifth win to lead the 7-1-1 Lexington Blue Sox to a 2-1 win over the Chiefs at Tufts University. Hewett outdueled Chiefs starter Jose Pimentel (2-1), who worked into the sixth inning but was tagged with his first loss of the year.

A first inning passed ball and a second inning Ross Curley RBI double was all the offense the Sox needed to get the win. The Chiefs, who saw thier five game unbeaten streak snapped, scored their run in the seventh on a Brendan Pyburn infield grounder and had the tying run in scoring position before Hewett slammed the door. Hewett has now struck out 29 batters in 28 innings and has a ERA of 1.50.

Justin Crisfaulli led the Chiefs offense with two hits, while Mike Andre, Matt Lawlor, Matty Anderson and Pyburn all added singles.

The Blue Sox went ahead 1-0 in the first and threatened for much more. Holy Cross leadoff man Jack Laurendeau got things going with a single to right and Curley followed with a perfectly placed bunt single in front of the plate. Dan Graham then hit a deep fly to center on which Laurendeau tagged and went to third. With Boston College's cleanup man Jared McGuire at the plate, a pitch got by catcher Matt Lawlor allowing Laurendeau to score. Pimentel then walked both McGuire and Anthony Santos to reload the bases. The Chiefs averted further trouble when Ben Hewett bounced into a Brenden Shepard unassisted to Koslowski doubleplay.

The Chiefs tried to knot things up in the home half of the first but came up empty. Pyburn led off with a single to right and Nate Leva sacrificed him to second. Hewett bore down and got Andrew Hanson looking at strike three and Crisafulli to bounce to third on a nice effort by Curley who ranged behind the bag to make the play.

The Sox went up two zip in the second inning. Pimentel got Dan Haugh swinging but John Lerner and Coscia hit back to back singles before Laurendeau K'd for the second out. Curley then doubled just inside the right field line scoring Lerner and putting runners on second and third. Graham was intentionally walked and Pimentel got McGuire to fly to Phil Costello in right to end the inning.

The Chiefs went down quietly in the both the second and third innings and Pimentel settled  down nicely to retire the sides in order in the Lexington third and fourth. The Chiefs tried to make some noise in the fourth when Crisafulli led off and reached on an infield single.  Kolowski then lofted a long fly ball that was tracked down by Graham on the warning track in right. Shepard then hit a pea right at Lerner at second base and when Andre followed with a long single to left center the Chiefs had two runners aboard. Hewett again got tough when he had to and got Lawlor to groundout to shortstop to end the inning.

Pimentel got the Lexington side in order in the fifth and the Chiefs returned the favor by going 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning. The Blue Sox threatened to blow it open in the top of the sixth when Jett Nolet walked and went to second on a wild pitch. Pimentel got Ben Hewett to fly out and the Chiefs chose to intentionally walk the right handed hitting Haugh to put runners on first and second. Koslowski came on to face lefties Lerner and Coscia and got a pop up and a nice play on a grounder to Shepard to keep it a 2-0 game.

A Crisafulli single was all the Chiefs could muster in the sixth and Koslowski kept the Sox off the board in the top of the seventh. In the bottom of the inning, Hewett got Andre for the first out when he flew to center. Lawlor then singled and Nicky Dunn ran for him. Pinch hitter Matt Anderson made things interesting when he lined a single to right to put runners on the corners with one out. Pyburn followed with a RBI grounder to Nolet at first scoring Dunn and moving Mike Barbati, who had run for Anderson to second. That's where the Chiefs rally ended as Hewett struck out Doug Heald swinging to end the game.

Pimentel worked 5.1 innings and allowed two earned runs on five hits while striking out seven and issuing four base on balls. Koslowski went 1.2 innings and gave up two hits anfd struck out a batter.

The Chiefs begin an important home and home series with the Testa Corp. Bombers at East Boston Stadium on Sunday at 5:30 PM before both teams travel back to Tufts for a rematch on Monday evening at 6:00 PM.

Medford, MA- Like Yogi Berra said “it’s déjà vu all over again”.

Last season Keith Forbes and the Chiefs ran into now New York Mets southpaw Jim Fuller and the two teams battled to a 0-0 tie. On Wednesday night another Cassell lefty, Tim Dunphy, matched Forbes pitch for pitch and the end result was once again a scoreless tie.

Both teams had some serious chances to break the scoring ice but when all was said and done, Forbes and Dunphy both kept their respective shutouts intact.

Things started real shaky for the Chiefs in the first when the first three Cassell batters, Teddy O’Reilly, Josh Mackey and Jimmy Roche, all reached base via two errors and an infield single. In typical Forbes fashion, the former San Diego Padre reached back and struck out Jeff Paquette, Ted Dziuba and Matt Basteri in succession to escape the major league jam.

The Chiefs threatened in the bottom of the first when Brendan Pyburn led off with a single. The Cassell defense did their best to mirror the Chiefs shaky start when Nate Leva reached on an error putting runners on first and second with no outs. Dunphy, who pitched professionally last season for the Namur Angels of the Belgian Major League, got the Cassell boys out of it by striking out Andrew Hanson, getting Justin Crisafulli to fly to center and Paul Koslowski to groundout.

Forbes got Cassell in order in the top of the second and the Chiefs got another runner in scoring position in the bottom of the inning. Mike Andre singled to right with one out and went to second when the throw back to the infield got away. Dunphy pitched out of it getting Matt Lawlor to fly out and Phil Costello to ground to first.

Neither team threatened again until Cassell got the first two runners aboard in the fifth on a Bob McCarthy single to left and a walk to Aaron Santos.  Forbes once again stepped it up a notch and struck out both Matt Rogers and Mackey sandwiched around a O’Reilly flyout that ended the inning.

Lawlor singled leading off the Chiefs fifth and Costello sacrificed him to second. Dunphy pulled another escape when he got Pyburn to fly to left and Leva to lineout to right.

Roche led off with a single up the middle to start the Cassell sixth but was quickly erased when Paquette, who started this season in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, bounced into a 6-4-3 double play.

The night’s best scoring chance came in the Chiefs sixth when Crisafulli laced a single to left with one away. Koslowski followed with long bomb to right that certainly had home run distance but curled two feet foul. Dunphy regained his composure and got both Koslowski and Brenden Shepard to both fly out.

Cassell went in order in the top of the seventh and the Chiefs threatened once again to win it in the bottom half of the inning. Andre rapped his second hit of the night to right and speedy Mike Barbati pinch ran. Lawlor sacrificed Barbati to second but Dunphy became stingy one more time and struck out Costello and got Pyburn to groundout to end the game.

Forbes struck out twelve and allowed three hits. Dunphy allowed just five hits and struck out two.

The Chiefs remain in second place with a 7-3-3 record while Cassell goes to 10-1-1 on the year.

The defending champions Lexington Blue Sox visit Tufts University tonight (Thursday) at 6:00 PM. Righty Jose Pimentel (2-0), who pitched in the Padres organization last season, will get the start for the Chiefs.
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Wakefield, MA- The Chiefs and Wakefield Merchants battled to a sloppy 3-3 tie at Walsh Field on Sunday evening. Both teams squandered chances to win the game and had to settle for one point each. With the tie, the Chiefs move into sole possession of second place with a 7-3-2 mark, good for 16 points.

The Merchants used singles from John Zaggaria and Steve Langone, an outfield throwing error and a miscue at shortstop to score an unearned first inning run and take a 1-0 lead off Chiefs starter Dylan Ellis (Gloucester, MA/Merrimack College)

The Chiefs capitalized on some equally shoddy Merchants defense to take a 3-1 second inning lead off Wakefield veteran starter and former Chicago Cub farmhand Steve Coffey. Justin Crisafulli and Paul Koslowski both singled and Mike Andre's infield grounder was thrown wide of first allowing Crisafulli to score. Torrid shortstop Brenden Shepard (Boxford, MA/Stonehill College) who is now 12 for 29, .414, then delivered Koslowski with a sacrifice fly to center for a 2-1 Chiefs lead. After Matt Boleski grounded out, catcher Matt Lawlor reached on another Merchant infield error allowing Andre to score that extended the margin to 3-1.

The Chiefs threatened to expand the lead in the third (Andrew Hanson leadoff single), the fourth (singles from Mike Andre and Lawlor) and the sixth (Nate Leva leadoff single), but came up empty on each occasion before the Merchants tied the game up.

In the sixth, Mike Sorrentino reached on a throwing error and Dana D'agostino drew a one out walk. Kevin Johnson then singled to right to load the bases. Closeer Chris Foundas (Needham, MA/Bryant University) was summoned from the bullpen to replace Ellis and experienced some control issues, walking both Matt Russo and John Davison to force in two runs before getting out of the jam with a strikeout and a popup.

The Chiefs got a runner in scoring position with one out in the seventh via a long Hanson gap double. Coffey stranded Hanson there when Crisafulli grounded out and Koslowski's long fly ball to right was tracked down by Taylor von Kriegenbergh to end the inning and another Chiefs scoring chance.

Foundas surrendered a a two out walk to Von Kriegenbergh in the bottom of the seventh but it ended in a tie when Doug Heald gobbled up Dana D'Agostino's grounder and fired to Koslowski at first to conclude the night for both teams.

Ellis worked 5.1 innings and allowed six hits while striking out one. Coffey, in his first start of the season, gave up eight hits and also struck out one in a gutty complete game effort.

Monday's scheduled game against the Medford Americans was postponed due to heavy rain showers.
The Chiefs and Americans will try again on Tuesday at Tufts at 6:00 PM. On Wednesday the Chiefs host the Cassell Club and on Thursday the defending champion Lexington Blue Sox pay a visit to Tufts.