South Sectional American Legion Playoffs: Back in focus

Clearly refocused after getting the scare of its baseball life in the first round of the South Sectional Bracket C, the Walpole Post 104 American Legion squad came out and jumped on Easton Post 7 early and often in Game 1 of the second round best-of-three series.

Walpole, through a series of well-placed singles, scored five times over the first two innings and sealed away the opening game with a five-run seventh in taking an 11-4 decision at Eldracher Field. Post 104 can book a spot in the State Final Eight with a win today at Easton’s Frothingham Park.

Walpole knocked 13 hits, seven coming over the first two innings, many of which had eyes to get through the infield. The top five in the Walpole lineup were a combined 11-for-25 with seven runs and five RBI with Pat Nicholson delivering three hits.

“It was a reality check. We were just cruising along the whole season,” said left fielder Sam Murray, who had a key two-run single in the seventh that sealed the win. “(Hawkeye A.C.) finally beat us and then we found ourselves one game away from elimination so we beared down and now we’re back on track where we were before.”

After having to rein in their aggressive approach on the bases in the series against Hawkeye A.C., Post 104 returned to form with five stolen bases.

Eric Fallon, making his first postseason appearance, worked five scoreless innings of two-hit relief to earn the victory. He did not walk a better and fanned just one, simply allowing the defense behind him do the work.

“The one thing Eric does is throw strikes, I knew we’d get strikes out of him and we just hoped we’d play good defense behind him,” said Walpole coach Chris Costello.

After falling behind 5-0 after two, Easton (15-14-1) chipped away against starter Connor Thornton with an RBI two-out single to left-center by shortstop Trevor Lawson that scored Matt Maloof, who led off the inning with a walk.

Post 7 grabbed three in the fifth as it loaded the bases with no outs on a Maloof walk, a Tim Herron single to center and a Brian Duggan hit-by-pitch that spelled the end of Thornton’s outing. Things did not start well for Fallon as all three inherited runners to score on a wild pitch, a Trevor Lawson groundout to first and an error off the bat of Justin Holmes that trimmed the Walpole lead to 5-4.

Walpole grabbed a run back in the sixth, but let a chance go to waste as Cole walked the bases loaded to start the inning and reliever Mike O’Shea only allowed one to score on a wild pitch.

O’Shea was not as fortunate in the seventh as Walpole batted around and scored five times. Nicholson and Ricky Graham opened the inning with singles and loaded the bases when Joe Cabral’s potential double play ball to short was bobbled and Easton could not get and out. A wild pitch scored Nicholson and a Chris Ferro walk loaded them once again for Murray, who got a pitch up in the zone and slapped it through the right side for a two-run single during a strong at-bat for a 9-4 advantage.

“I was seeing a lot of outside fastballs and I was fouling them off down the (right field) line, he finally left me a hanger,” said Murray. “Right before my at-bat (Costello) was telling me to use my strength and I always take it the other way. I got it up and out a little bit so I went with it.”

Pat Falvey got a suicide squeeze down that scored Ferro and Murray went from first to third on the play, eventually scoring on John Phelan’s two-out single.

Easton was unable to do much against Fallon, putting runners at the corners with one out — an approximately 375-foot fly out to left-center from Justin Holmes that Murray tracked down — in the eighth but Fallon got another fly out and pop out to end the inning.

Easton, which needed to win seven of their last nine to just reach the postseason, has been in this position before having dropped the opener of its District 9 series with South Attleboro and sends Billy Humphrey to the mound this afternoon. Walpole, which has used all five of its primary starters in the past three days, had yet to decide who it would give the ball to today after the game.

“Tomorrow we’ll be ready to go and Game 3 will be in Easton, this is where we live, we only play when our backs are against the wall,” said Easton manager Tom Maloof.