Andre Chiefs

Medford-Unfortunately for the Chiefs Mike Lanciani was on a short pitch count.

Fortunately for the Americans he was.

The righty cruised through his three innings of work facing just 10 batters and the Chiefs had him staked to a 2-0 lead.
Lanciani, making his first start in over six weeks, departed he game as planned after working a 1-2-3 third.
With his departure so went the Chiefs fortunes as the Americans put up six unanswered runs on the way to a 6-2 win on Saturday night at Playstead Park.

Lanciani set the Americans down in the top of the first and the Chiefs went right to work in the bottom of the inning.
Leadoff man Rick Sotiropoulos and Phil Costello both drew walks and moved up on a Ken Pescosolido wild pitch. Justin Crisafulli flew to short right for the first out. Cleanup man Mike Andre remained hot at the plate and delivered both runners with a line shot single to right center to give the Chiefs a 2-0 lead. After the second out, Jim Buldini singled to put runners at first and third but Pescosolido escaped further trouble when he got Rich Montecalvo to bounce out to third. Lanciani, who has been nursing a sore elbow, worked an easy second and third and left after throwing 34 pitches.

The Americans greeted reliever Mark Blake with four big runs in the top of fourth. A walk to Sam Shaughnessy, singles by John Welch and Steve Tamoush sandwiched around a hit batsman, followed by a Charlie Pagliarulo sacrifice fly and another single from veteran Steve Napier accounted for the big inning.

Paul Bratton relieved Blake in the fifth and the Americans loaded the bases with one out. Bratton experienced tightness in his arm and had to leave the mound. Mike DiCato came on and kept the Chiefs in the ballgame when he got them out of the bases loaded jam the with a popup and a groundout.

DiCato surrendered a leadoff double to Napier in the top of the sixth but left him right there when the UMass righty got Jake Christman and Ryan Buke to fly out and caught Mike Burgoyne looking.

Southpaw Nolan Boike, back from Lowell of the NECBL, came on to work the bottom of the sixth for the Americans. Buldini welcomed him with a long double off the fence in left and went to third on a passed ball with nobody out. The Chiefs left Buldini stranded when Boike got Montecalvo to pop up, Doug Heald to line softly to third and Boleski to strike out swinging.

The Americans added a couple of insurance runs off DiCato in the seventh on consecutive singles from Welch, Ryan Maguire, Tamoush and Pagliarulo.

Maguire worked the the seventh and got the Chiefs in order.
 

Wakefield- League President Les DeMarco and ICL manager Rick DeAngelis announced yesterday that third baseman Mike Andre and pitcher Mike Lanciani will be the Chiefs representatives at the ICL-Boston Park League all-star game. The game will be played on Sunday, July 23 at Walsh Field in Wakefield at 2:00 PM.

Chiefs veteran slugger Justin Crisafulli was named to the team but had to decline due to a previous commitment with the Boston Typos. It was the tenth time that Crisafulli was named an ICL all-star.

Pitcher Mike DiCato was then named by DeAngelis to replace Crisafulli as the second Chiefs representative. As luck would have it for the former Malden Catholic and present UMass-Amherst star, due to the recent scheduling of the game, DiCato had also made a prior commitment to join Crisafulli and play in the Union Printers tournament on all-star Sunday for the Typos in Ft. Myers,Florida.

Both Crisafulli and DiCato made their commitments to represent The City of Boston in the annual Florida tournament only after receiving permission and receiving the support of the Chiefs coaching staff. Both are expected to miss only two regular season games along with the all-star game.

Enter Mike Lanciani who made his return to the mound on Saturday with three more sharp innings of scoreless ball. Lanciani, with his recent performance, coupled with the fact that he has not allowed an earned run in 15 innings of work, then became the unanimous league wide choice to join Mike Andre as the Chiefs second representative on the ICL squad. 

For the rookie Andre, who was the first Chief selected to the team, it will obviously be his first ICL all-star game as a player. The former GBL all-star just completed his freshman year at Merrimack College in May. Andre had recently declined a late invitation to play in the Typos tournament. The left hand swinging Andre was hitting a team leading .383 (18-47) with one home run at the time of his selection. He also leads the Chiefs in most offensive categories including hits (18), RBI's (9), OB% .420 and Slugging % .468. DiCato and Andre were teammates on the 2004 Metro Squad of the Bay State Games at Harvard University.

Lanciani along with having a 0.00 ERA, is 1-0 and has allowed just seven hits in 15 innings. He has struck out 11 batters and has issued just one walk. The Andover native was in the Merrimack College starting rotation as a senior this past spring.

Joining DeAngelis as coaches on the 2006 ICL staff will be Bob Nasson of the Cassell Club, Dave Ellegood of the Wakefield Merchants, Scott Blumsack of the Gately A's and Joe Chiodo of the Watertown Reds.

A complete list of the ICL all-stars will be available late Monday afternoon.

Two more days of heavy rain have ICL General Managers scrambling to reschedule even more games in a season that  has been plagued by rain, rain and more rain.....The Chiefs fell victim to the weather for the second day in a row. Thursday's game vs. Wakefield was called off yesterday morning when Chiefs Assistant Manager Paul Criasfulli, along with representatives of the Medford Park Department toured Playstead Park and deemed it unplayable for the game. Despite the clearing conditions late in the day, the field remained saturated ....Thursday's postponement was a franchise record high ninth on the Chiefs schedule this summer. With all of the rain that Eastern Massachusetts has received, the ICL's Board of Directors have been forced to extend the regular season slate until at least Friday, August 4. The Chiefs have already scheduled a makeup game that night against the Gately A's at Playstead at 6:00 PM....The ICL will be putting out a revised regular season and playoff schedule in the next few days....The Chiefs face the prospect of having to play thirteen games in the next nineteen days. In addition, all games that were scheduled for Sunday, July 23, including the Chiefs at Gately contest, must be rescheduled due to the all-star game with the Boston Park League at Wakefield at 2:00 PM.....The postponements have once again thrown the Chiefs  pitching roatation into shambles.It is expected that Mike Lanciani, who has been on the DL since June 5, will now start for the Chiefs on Saturday vs. the Americans at Playstead at 5:30 PM. Mike Coppinger is now penciled in for his start against the Americans on Monday.....Cassell's Mike Parissi, who threw five innings of three hit ball against the Chiefs on June 30 at Trum, tossed a no-hitter against Wakefield on Monday night.....Veteran outfielder Brian Macrina remains hampered by a wrist injury that has had him in and out of the lineup since June 12. The former Merrimack star and four time ICL all-star is hitting .304 but has been able to make only 24 plate appearances.....Former GBL MVP Sean O'Brien of Arlington, MA had the first three hit game of his ICL career against the Americans...Chiefs Hall of Famer Mike Barnes was a visitor to the Chiefs dugout on Monday. Barnsey had his newborn baby and future Chief rightfielder, Tyler Ray, in tow. Barnes' #22 was retired by the Chiefs in 2003. He played twelve seasons with the Chiefs and won four ICL Chamoionships.....Former ICL star Tony Pappalardo, who spent many years with the Medford franchise in the late 1960's and 1970's, was also in attendence....Steve Howe, who co-captained the 1974 edition of the 24-1 GBL champion Medford High Mustangs along with Chiefs manager Chuck Andre, also made an appearance at Monday's game. Howe and Andre formed one of the top pitching duos in Mustang history with Howe going 11-1 and Andre 12-0.The second baseman on that team was none other than Chiefs Hall of Famer Dave Clivio......The ICL is awaiting today's announcemnt of the 2006 ICL all-star team by Lexington manager Rick DeAngelis who earned the honor of piloting the squad after winning the 2005 championship with his Blue Sox. Justin Crisafulli, Mike Andre and pitchers Mike DiCato, Mike Lanciani and Mike Coppinger could all be in contention to earn an all-star spot. Brain Macrina, certainly would have also vied for a spot if he was healthy. The team is expected to be announced by DeAngelis sometime late Friday.....It may be a good idea for those struggling at the plate to find out what the Cassell Club's Zack Golden has been eating lately. At last check the former Brandeis University shortstop is hitting an obscene .560, (28  for 50 ) wiith 23 RBI's, leading the ICL in those categories. Justin Crisafulli is tied with three others for the ICL home run lead with 2. Mike Andre is 3rd in the league in hits with 17 behind Matt McEvoy of Watertown (21) and Golden. Andre checks in at the sixth spot in the batting race with a .386 average (17-44) and fifth in on the home run list..... In the Mike's are wild deparment; Mike DiCato (2.80), Mike Coppinger (2.36) and Mike Lanciani  (0.00) are all among the league leaders in ERA......

Medford- It seems that a full week cannot go by without a host of rainouts playing havoc with the ICL schedule.

The Chiefs-Gately A's game fell victim to Wednesday's rain along with the rest of the ICL slate. As a result of then unusual amount of rain, the ICL's Board of Directors have voted to extend the calendar for regular season games to Friday, August 4.

The Chiefs hope Playstead Park will dry out enough so that they can at least have a chance to play Thursday's game  against the Wakefield Merchants. Mike Lanciani, who was scheduled to start against Gately, will get the start vs. Wakefield. The Chiefs have pencilled in righty Mike Coppinger to face the Americans on Saturday at 5:30 PM. 

Fans should check this website often for weather upadates and possible schedule changes.