It would have been the easy thing to do for the Dedham High baseball team to wish they were doing something else on a gorgeous April vacation afternoon after dropping a tough 7-6 decision to Randolph in the morning game of yesterday’s doubleheader at Memorial Park, especially losing pitcher Sam Black.
Instead, the Marauders shook off an early three-run deficit and started swinging the bats with authority, especially designated hitter Sam Black.
Black knocked in four runs in the first two innings to pace the Dedham attack, which piled up 12 hits in just five innings of a 13-5 win, which ended a frame early when the visitors elected not to play the seventh.
“Dropping the first end makes it tough coming back for the second one, but we did and we hit the ball very well,” said Dedham coach Chuck Becker, whose team is 2-6 after the split. “So we were happy the kids could come back and win the second one.”
It was an inauspicious beginning for the Marauders, as starter Pat Doherty hit the game’s first batter and committed a throwing error on the second, kickstarting a three-run first inning for the Blue Stars.
But by the time the first was over Dedham had the lead for good, scoring four runs in the bottom half and multiple runs in the first four frames to build a commanding edge.
A leadoff walk by Chris Pezzuolo and singles by Paul Sullivan and Rob Zarthar got Dedham on the board. Black then quickly tied it with a blast over the right fielder’s head that one-hopped the fence for a two-run double to make it a 3-3 game.
After an Alex D’Agostino single, Doherty put Dedham up to stay with a sacrifice fly that scored Black.
Dedham did all its damage with two outs in the second as a Sullivan walk and back-to-back singles by Kwei and Zarthar bumped it to 5-3, with the both runners in scoring position after the throw. That set the stage for Black again, who delivered once more with a two-run single to left to make it 7-3. Black finished 3-for-4 with three runs scored.
“It was huge, after my day on the mound (in the first game), it was nice to come back and have a huge day at the plate,” said Black, who also knocked in a run against Randolph. “I knew we were coming back, we were hungry for a win.”
While Black pulled the nifty trick of driving in two runs in each of the first two innings, Sullivan matched him by doing the same in the next two. With Doherty and Pezzuolo on with walks, Sullivan deposited a two-out flare into right to score both and make it 9-3.
Hyde Park answered with a run in the top of the fourth, but the Marauders put it away with a four-run bottom half. A D’Agostino sacrifice fly brought home Zarthar for his third run of the game and a Doherty RBI single made it 11-3. Pat Phinney was hit and Michael Craveb walked to load the bases for Sullivan, who again dropped a ball in front of the right fielder to score a pair. Sullivan reached safely in all four plate appearances with three singles and a walk.
“Our problem, besides the fielding, has been putting the ball in play,” said Becker. “In the O’Bryant loss last week we struck out 13 times, so it was nice to cut down on the strikeouts, put the ball in play and see the kids get some hits.”
Doherty, who struck out four and walked no one in four-plus innings while pitching around five errors behind him, settled down after the first inning, but got help from some overzealous baserunning by the Blue Stars.
In the third, Hype Park put Vladimir Camacho on third with no outs but after a strikeout and a line out he was cut down at the plate trying to steal home. The Blue Stars also had the bases loaded and no one out in the fourth and run already in when Doherty picked a runner off third to help limited the damage to just the one run.
Doherty’s day ended prematurely when he took a liner off the left ankle to leadoff the fifth. Kwei came in for the final two innings, allowing just the inherited runner to score. With two on and one out in the sixth, Kwei got Angelo Santiago to line into what ended up being a game-ending double play to third, as Hyde Park had alerted the Marauders they would not continue unless it scored in the inning.
In the early game, Dedham had scored three in the second, two in the third and one in the fourth to grab a 6-5 lead against Blue Devils, but Randolph’s two-run fifth was the difference and Dedham managed just one hit the rest of the way. Kwei had two of the Marauders seven hits, including their only extra base hit, a double. Dedham gets another shot at the Blue Devils in Randolph tomorrow morning.
