Andre Chiefs

Malden, MA- The Lexington duo of Junior Pena and Jake Vesling combined for 12 strikeouts when the Chiefs fell to the Blue Sox 5-2 at Maplewood on Thursday night.

Chiefs’ lefty Tim Dunphy allowed only one earned run in his five innings but was victimized by a couple of errors in the three run Blue Sox third inning.

The Chiefs grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on singles by torrid Tony Serino, Nate Witkowski, and Steve Passatempo (RBI).

The Sox went the three single route themselves and knotted things up in the top of the second when Julian Alvarez, Mitch Schroeder and Morgan Brown (RBI) turned the all singles trick.

Pena retired the bottom third of the Chiefs order in the bottom of the second. The Blue Sox then capitalized on some shabby Chiefs defense, along with two hits. to grab a 4-1 lead in the top of the third. A John Barry leadoff single, followed by a couple errors from second baseman Evan Reynolds, an RBI fielders’ choice off the bat of Tyler Ferguson, and finally a two RBI single by Alvarez, accounted for the runs.

Dunphy and Pena matched zeros in the fourth and fifth innings as the game headed into the sixth with the Blue Sox still in front 4-1.

Lexington padded their margin to 5-1 in the top of the sixth when Nate Wolf walked, when to second on a wild pitch, and scored on a Brown RBI double off reliever David Kerns.

Vesling came on for Pena and shut the Chiefs down with two K’s in the bottom of the sixth and Kerns held Lexington scoreless, despite an Alvarez one out double, in the top of the seventh.

The Chiefs picked up a run and threatened for more when they brought the tying run to the plate with two outs in the seventh. Michael Nestor and Serino both reached on one out singles. After Nate Witkowski lined to right for the second out, Ben Waldrip (pictured) singled to right, scoring Nestor, to make it 5-2. With Serino at third and Waldrip at first, Vesling secured the win when he got Passatempo swinging to end the game.

Pena (2-0) got the win. The former Kansas City Royals’ farmhand went five innings, allowed five hits, and struck out eight. Vesling worked the final two frames and gave up a run and four hits while striking out four.

Dunphy now 3-3 took the loss. The veteran southpaw allowed just one earned run and surrendered seven hits in five innings. Kerns allowed a run and two doubles and struck out three.

Chiefs Chatter… Both the Blue Sox and Chiefs had nine hits in the game……The Chiefs now have a few days off to regroup and will return to action in a rare twi-night doubleheader against the Reading Bulldogs on Monday starting at 6:45 PM at Maplewood….The ICL regular season will conclude next week with the first round of the playoffs scheduled to begin on August 11th…..Due to the high number of rainouts this summer, both the first round and the semi-finals will be best of three series….Serino remains hot at the plate and with his three for four performance raised his average to .433 on the season….

Torrential downpours have caused the postponement of all three ICL games that were scheduled on Wednesday evening.

The Reading-Wakefeld game at Walsh Field, the Lexington-Melrose game at Morelli, and the Andre Chiefs-Somerville game at Trum have all been rained out.

The Andre Chiefs at Somerville game will be made up on Tuesday, August 6th at Trum Field at 8:30 PM. No dates for the other two rainouts have been announced as yet.

Watertown, MA- Evan Reynolds had the best night so far in his young ICL career, leading the Chiefs to a hard fought 8-4 win over Alibrandis at Victory Field on Tuesday evening.

Reynolds (pictured) led the 11-hit Chiefs offense going a perfect 3 for 3. He reached base four times, drilled a three-run homer in the second inning, scored twice, and drove in four runs.

Along with Reynolds’ heroics, the Chiefs got a quality pitching effort from rookie Nick Remy who went five innings in his first ICL start. They got closed things out with a stellar two inning relief performance from shortstop turned reliever Nate Witkowski.

The Chiefs fell behind early when Alibrandis put up a two-spot in the bottom of the first inning on five singles from Mike Maguire, Teddy Dziuba, Dave Lightbody, Jake Miller and Anthony Perry.

Reynolds put the Chiefs in front 3-2 in the top of the second when his home run to right-center scored Brian Bessler and Andrew Caulfield in front of him.

Alibrandis tied things up at 3-3 in the bottom of the second on a Lightbody sacrifice fly.

The Chiefs went back in front 4-3 in the top of the fourth when Reynolds singled, Nick Leva sacrificed him to second, and Witkowski plated him with a double.

Lightbody tied the game up once again in the bottom of the sixth with an RBI single.

Caulfield came up huge and delivered a bases loaded and game winning triple for the Chiefs in the top of the seventh, followed by another Reynolds RBI single, that gave the Chiefs an 8-4 lead.

Witkowski closed the game by retiring the Alibrandis side in order in the bottom of the seventh.

Remy worked the opening five innings and didn’t allow a hit after the first. Witkowski (1-0) spelled him to begin the sixth and gave up one hit and one run as he picked up his first win.

Chiefs Chatter…. Remy, from Atkinson, NH, is coming off a fine season for Central Catholic. He made his ICL debut last week striking out four batters in two innings against the Melrose Americans……Reynolds (Everett, MA) hit .279 in 21 games for Pine Manor this past spring….The Remy/Witkowski combo allowed only one hit over the final six innings…. The Chiefs stay busy for the next two nights. They travel to Trum Field to meet the Somerville Royals on Wednesday at 8:30 PM. On Thursday, the Lexington Blue Sox pay a visit to Maplewood at 8:00 PM….

Malden, MA- The Chiefs bats were quiet for the second straight game, this time falling victim to a Chris Costa ten strikeout four hitter, and in the process dropping a 4-1 decision to Alibrandis on Monday night at Maplewood.

The Chiefs wasted the second quality pitching performance in as many days as Zach Kirby struck out ten of his own but got touched up for three fourth inning runs. Evan Walsh allowed only one run and six hits in a 1-0 loss at Wakefield on Sunday.

Costa (2-0) and Kirby (4-4) kept the game scoreless until Alibrandis broke through with the three runs in the top of the fourth. Singles from Bobby Barrett and Juan Parra, a Ryan Leung line hugging double, and a James Cramphin triple, accounted for the runs.

Jake Miller was hit by a pitch and Alibrandis took a 4-0 lead in the top of the seventh when he scored on an infield error.

Mike Gedman (pictured) drilled a solo homer with one out in the seventh that allowed the Chiefs to avert the shutout.

Chiefs Chatter…With the loss the Chiefs dip under the .500 mark at 10-11 for the first time this season. They will look to even things up when they complete the home and home series with Alibrandis on Tuesday at Victory Field in Watertown at 7:45 PM. The Chiefs stay on the road on Wednesday when they visit the Somerville Royals at Trum Field at 8:30 PM. They return to Maplewood on Thursday at 8:00 PM when they meet the first-place Lexington Blue Sox at 8:00 PM….

Wakefield, MA- James Maguire tossed a complete game four-hitter, striking out nine, when the Merchants shutout the Chiefs 1-0 on Sunday afternoon at Walsh Field.

Chiefs lefty Evan Walsh was nearly as good surrendering just six hits.

The Merchants scored the only run of the game in the bottom of the fifth inning when Jon Luders’ single drove in Ryan Collins who had walked.

Tony Serino, who now leads the ICL with a .431 average, had two of the Chiefs hits, including a fourth inning double.
Walsh, now 2-2, struck out five.

Chiefs Chatter…. The Chiefs begin a home and home series with Alibrandis on Monday at Maplewood at 8:00 PM. They then travel to Victory Field in Watertown on Tuesday at 7:45 PM…