After jumping out to an early 6-1 lead last night, Walpole American Legion Post 104 was thrown a curveball by Norfolk Post 335 head coach Mark Gafur when Post 335’s ace – Drew Leenhouts – was called on in relief.
“I was surprised to see him,” said Post 104 right fielder Ricky Graham. “We didn’t do much against him last Saturday. We didn’t do much tonight, either.”
After throwing six innings against Post 104 on Saturday, Leenhouts tossed four innings of scoreless relief and went 2-for-3 at the plate. But Walpole’s early lead was too much for Post 335 to overcome as Post 104 held on to pull out a 6-5 victory.
“Drew is our horse, and we gotta ride him,” said Gafur, whose team fell to Post 104 for the third time in six days. “They say, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ He’s given us some quality innings against Walpole and we worked at it today, but we stranded too many runners. We don’t have a game until next Monday, so this will be a much needed rest for us.”
With the win, Walpole swept the season series and improved to 13-0 while Post 335 dropped it’s fourth straight, falling to 7-7-1. Despite playing the game at Eldracher Field, Walpole was the visiting team because the game had been originally scheduled for today in Norfolk.
“We can look at this game one of two ways,” said Post 104 coach Chris Costello. “You could say we were up, 6-1, and we played with enough confidence and poise to win with our pitching and defense. Or you could say — and I say this with total respect to their pitcher, because he’s the best we’ve seen — we sat around offensively and gave them a shot to win.”
While Leenhouts shut down the Post 104 offense in the latter half of the game, the damage had already been done before he could put out the fire.
Walpole shortstop John Phelan started a five-run third inning for Post 104 with a leadoff triple. After Billy Hickey walked and stole second base, Graham pulled a single to right to plate a pair, snapping a 1-1 tie. Joe Cabral followed with a triple of his own and scored on a Chris Ferro sacrifice fly and Jim Griffin scored Pat Falvey before the inning came to a close.
“I went 0-for-4 last game and was looking for a pitch to hit,” said Cabral. “I saw one middle-in and drove it, but after we scored those six runs at the start I think we laid back a little bit.”
Post 335 started chipping away at Walpole starter Eric Fallon after Leenhouts entered the game in the fourth. Third baseman Tony Trafecanty hit a leadoff single and took second base on a Graham fielding error. Joe Kelly followed with a first-pitch triple to right-center scoring Trafecanty and was brought around by Garrick Cronin to make the score 6-3.
Taylor Larsen led off the bottom of the fifth with a single, Gafur called for a D.J. Goldberg sacrifice bunt, but Larsen ended up stranded at third base.
In the bottom of the sixth, Leenhouts singled with one out and Cronin advanced him with a two-out, two-strike single. Joey Tornabene followed Cronin with a two-out, two-strike, two-RBI triple to right-center to put Norfolk within one run. Costello then called Eric Brown from the bullpen, who got Larsen to pop out to end Norfolk’s threat and worked the seventh to earn the save.
“We were very lucky to hold on,” said Costello. “But Brownie is a veteran – he was a reliever this year in college – so he’s been there before and I know I can look to him when I need some big outs.”
