Andre Chiefs

Malden, MA- Tim Dunphy tossed a tidy six-hitter, and Kyle Dembrowski supplied the offense with a two RBI single in the sixth inning, when the Chiefs outdueled the Somerville Royals 2-1 at Maplewood on Wednesday night.

Dunphy’s 50th win in Chiefs’ uniform proved to be just another in his long line of big time victories for the club. This time around the complete game effort clinched a playoff berth for his squad.

The game featured an outstanding old fashioned lefthanded pitcher’s duel with Dunphy and the Royals’ Jonathan Richard as the feature combatants. The duo matched zeros until the bottom of the sixth. Richard was nearly untouchable over the first five innings with an Andrew Caulfield fifth inning single as his only blemish.

The Chiefs finally got things going in the bottom of the sixth when Tony Serino and Ben Waldrip led off with back to back singles. Mike Gedman then drew a walk to load the bases before Dembrowski drilled a single up the middle, scoring Serino and Waldrip, to give the Chiefs a 2-0 lead. After Richard struck out Caulfield for the first out, Player-Manager Steve Gambale, making his season debut between the lines, drilled a single to center that moved Dembrowski to second. Richard kept the Royals in range when he got Nick Leva to pop up and then Matt Maloney to fly to Nick Valdario in center.

The Royals made things interesting in the top of the seventh when Joe Ward led off with a double, moved to third on an infield grounder, and then scored on Ryan Noone’s grounder to Waldrip. Jonathan Rodriguez drew a two out walk before Dunphy punched the Chiefs’ playoff ticket by getting Graham Smith to ground out to Matt Maloney at second base.

Dunphy (4-3) ended up allowing six hits and striking out two. Richard, who fell to 2-6 with the loss, surrendered just five hits and struck out five.

Chiefs Chatter….. Dunphy became only the third pitcher in Andre Chiefs history to reach the illustrious 50 win plateau. The former Brandeis standout joins Dave Marsters (99 wins) and Jared Freni (71 wins) in that elite circle. He has appeared in 111 games and has thrown 536 innings for the club since 2010. After Wednesday’s win, his overall Chiefs’ record is an exceptional 50-21-4 and along the way added three saves. After a stellar career with the Cassell Club, and a stint playing pro ball in Europe, Dunphy’s first appearance for the Chiefs came on June 16, 2010 in a 7-4 win against the then Medford Americans at Playstead Park. Dunphy went four innings in that game before giving way to Mike Gedman who worked 2.1 innings to get the win…. The Chiefs are expected to send David Kerns to the hill when they conclude the regular season on Thursday vs. the Melrose Americans at Morelli Field at 7:30 PM…. Information on the upcoming ICL Playoffs will be posted tomorrow….

Somerville, MA- Former Seattle Mariners farmhand Paul Covelle fired a four hitter, striking out 11, when the Royals knocked off the Chiefs 6-1 at Trum Field on Tuesday night.

Covelle was dominant throughout and had at least one strikeout in every inning but the first.

The Royals broke a scoreless tie when they scored five times in the bottom of the fourth and chased Chiefs’ starter Nick Remy. Remy had wiggled out of jams in each of the first three innings primarily due to his wildness. A two run double from Jonathan Rodriguez finally gave the hosts a 2-0 lead that they never relinquished. Somerville added three more runs on a wild pitch and singles from Adam Johnson and Rob Caggiano.

The Chiefs only run came in the top of the sixth when Tony Serino singled, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on a Ben Waldrip RBI single.

Covelle (3-2) finished things off in style when he struck out the Chiefs’ side in order in the top of the seventh.

Remy, the rookie from Central Catholic, fell to 1-1 with the loss. The righty allowed only two hits (both doubles), struck out five, but walked seven and hit two batters in his 3.2 innings of work. Nate Witkowski allowed a run on two hits in an inning and a third and Matt Maloney worked the bottom of the sixth and gave up the final run.

Chiefs Chatter… The Chiefs host the Royals at Maplewood on Wednesday at 8:00 PM and conclude the regular season on Thursday vs. the Melrose Americans at Morelli Field at 7:30 PM……

Malden, MA- Reading pitching dominated the evening as the Chiefs lost both ends of a doubleheader, 4-0 and 5-1, to the Bulldogs on Monday night at Maplewood.

Anthony Sapenza (1-2) struck out nine Chiefs and allowed only three hits in the opener. Chris Bosco led the Bulldogs’ offense going 3-4 with a double and two RBI’s. Tyler Cedeno and Kyle Hawes each added two hits.

It was a 1-0 game heading into the sixth inning as Chiefs lefty Evan Walsh was nearly as effective as Sapenza over the first five. Walsh (2-3) ended up striking out 12 batters before allowing a couple of runs in the sixth. He gave way to Ben Waldrip who allowed a run in the seventh.

R.J. Libby had two of the Chiefs hits while Tony Serino had the other.

Andrew Moccia (2-2) tossed six innings of five hit ball to get the Bulldogs the 5-1 win in game two. Darren Hartwell and Cooper Marengi had two hits each for Reading while Bosco, Mike Taylor and Marengi supplied the RBI’s.

Zach Kirby (4-5) allowed only six hits himself, and struck out six, but was tagged with the loss.

The Chiefs only run came in the first inning when Steve Passatempo drove in Serino who had walked.

Nate Witkowski and Gino DeSimone each had doubles for the Chiefs.

Chiefs Chatter… The Chiefs begin a home and home series with the Somerville Royals tonight at Trum Field at 8:30 PM. On Wednesday they will host the Royals at Maplewood at 8:00 PM…. The regular season will conclude with a trip to Morelli Field and a visit to the Melrose Americans on Thursday at 7:30 PM….

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.