Foxboro Post 93 kept the pressure on Norwood in the race for the No. 2 seed in District 6 West last night with an 11-0 shutout of Dedham.
The win wrapped Post 93’s regular season up at 13-8-2, currently tied with Norwood at 28 points, and guaranteed them at least third in West seedings. With Foxboro holding the tiebreaker, Post 70 must win tonight at home against Needham to claim the No. 2 spot.
Dedham falls to 7-14 with just tomorrow’s makeup against Stoughton remaining.
Foxboro batted around in the second inning, scoring six runs to put Post 18 in a hole it never recovered from. Jimmy Gilmore and Billy McGee started the inning by with walks and John Ford brought them both home with a long double that almost reached the417-foot center field marker for a 2-0 lead.
Joe Nixon followed with a shot through the infield to score Ford. Nixon slowly moved his way to third base after a single from John Garabedian and a walk for Nick Thrasher to load the bases with no outs. Nixon came home easily on a wild pitch to Chuck Erickson, who went on to single, scoring Garabedian and Foxboro led 5-0 before an out had been recorded.
Gilmore’s second at-bat of the inning produced a two-out RBI single that made it 6-0 Foxboro.
“We’re averaging about 11 runs in our last five games,” said Foxboro coach Billy Travers. “Earlier in the year we were averaging about two.”
Foxboro scored again in the fourth after back-to-back doubles from Thrasher and Brian Swanton. Thrasher scored off of Swanton’s hit, and Swanton came home on a sacrifice fly from Mike Farrell to increase the lead to 8-0.
In the fifth, Foxboro struck again on a RBI double off the bat of Thrasher that brought in Garabedian to make it 9-0. A double from Swanton, his second RBI double of the night, scored Thrasher, and Swanton came home as well on a hard hit single from Gilmore for the final run of the evening, accounting for the 11-0 final.
Nobles junior, Henry Mauck, had the only Dedham hit through the fifth inning with a single that dropped into short center field.
Foxboro pitcher, Joey Swindells went the distance for the shutout with 11 strikeouts.
Brian Morante knocked a two-run double in the seventh inning to extend his hitting streak to 16 games, but Post 320 was handled in their season finale at the hands of visiting Norfolk.
“He picked up right where he left off with the high school team,” said Westwood manager Dick Paster of the Curry College-bound Morante.
Tom Hart accounted for a third of the six Westwood hits, going 2-for-4.
Post 335 put the game away with a nine-run fourth inning and took a 15-1 lead into the last of the seventh.
Norfolk (12-9-1), which will either be the No. 4 or 5 seed in the upcoming district playoffs, had 15 hits on the evening.
Norwood Post 70 will honor former parent and fan Chris “Kibby” Curran, who passed away suddenly this year, with a pre-game ceremony prior to tonight’s 7:30 game against Needham at the Balch Elementary School’s Peter Wall Field.
