The bullseye on the backs of the Walpole American Legion Post 104 team just got a lot larger.
Behind a 78-pitch complete game effort from Pat Nicholson, Walpole finished off a perfect regular season with a 3-0 win over Medfield Post 110. The District 6 West champions will now face the No. 5 seed from District 6 East, either Cohasset or Holbrook, in a best-of-three series that will open Monday at Eldracher Field.
According to Post 104 coach Chris Costello, this is the first team to undefeated in the regular season. Judging by the reaction of the team as the final out settled into the glove of center fielder Billy Hickey, win No. 22 was treated very similarly to win No. 1.
“It’s satisfying knowing that we were able to take it one game at a time and we didn’t really feel any pressure the whole way,” said catcher Matt Romines.
“It’s nice to go undefeated, it’s never happened in the storied tradition of Walpole High School or Walpole Legion,” said Costello, while heaping praise among the parents and fans that helped support the squad. “To win 22 out of 22 is special. Ultimately, we are where we want to be at this point. We want to be in the playoffs, we have a high seed and we still have things we want to accomplish. At the beginning of the season we set two goals, we want to make the playoffs and get to Chicopee (site of this year’s State Final Eight).”
The Walpole offense got all the offense they would need in the first inning as John Phelan led off the inning with a triple to left-center and Hickey, who was given a second life as a foul pop was misplayed, followed with an RBI single to left-center. Hickey came around to score on a stolen base and two wild pitches from Medfield starter Jake Roberts for a 2-0 lead.
“(Phelan) gets on base a lot and steals a lot of bases so that gives me a lot of opportunities for hit-and-runs and for me to just put the ball in play,” said Hickey. “He gets on third base a lot so its an opportunity for RBIs.”
While the first inning chance was one of the few opportunities on the evening for Walpole, they capitalized while Medfield had chances throughout the game but was never able to convert, going just 1-for-9 with men in scoring position.
In each of the first two innings Medfield had a runner at third with one out and was unable to score.
Sean Gordon led off the third with a single back through the middle for Medfield and Brian Iafolla followed with a ground ball through the right side with Gordon running on the pitch. Unsure of where the ball was hit, Gordon hesitated before touching the base, he then took a couple steps back to first and then cut in front of the base and tried to get to third. Ricky Graham fired the ball to John Phelan, who took the cut just inside second base and applied the tag. Nicholson then induced an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.
While Medfield had four hits through the first three innings, they had nothing to show for it.
Walpole grabbed a run without a hit in the third as Hickey started the inning by getting hit by a pitch, stole second, took second on a groundout by Nicholson and scored on a wild pitch.
“He plays the game hard, he’s a dynamite center fielder and his offense this year has been a huge bonus,” said Costello of Hickey, who entered the week at an even .400. “We started him in the two-hole to see how he would react and we haven’t moved him from the two-hole.”
The Walpole defense was once again flawless, in the fourth with runners at the corners and two outs, Ryan Tkowski (2-for-3) stole second and Phelan cut the throw from Romines and fired a strike to Pat Falvey at third catching Cam Riera too far off third for the third out.
After getting his only perfect inning in the fifth, Nicholson worked out of a second-and-third, one-out jam by striking out Peter Bain and then getting Riera to fly out.
Nicholson, who walked one and fanned four, allowed consecutive two-out singles in the seventh, but wrapped up the regular season by getting a fly out.
As for Walpole’s potential playoff opponent, Cohasset (7-11) and Holbrook (6-11) are still in contention for that final postseason spot. Holbrook, which owns the tiebreaker over Cohasset, needs to defeat playoff-bound Milton tonight or else Cohasset will be postseason-bound.
