The main goal at the beginning of the season for the Walpole American Legion Post 104 was to reach the State Final Eight in Chicopee.
Post 104 rolls out the Mass Pike Tuesday after pounding out 18 hits in a 12-0 win over Easton Post 7 in a Game 2 contest shortened to seven innings by the mercy rule. Walpole scored 23 runs on 31 hits in the two-game sweep of Easton, which finished 15-15-1. The top four hitters in the Walpole lineup John Phelan, Billy Hickey, Pat Nicholson and Ricky Graham all scored twice while Hickey, Nicholson and Joe Cabral had three hits apiece.
“It’s a great accomplishment, but we’re not done yet,” said Phelan. “This is where we wanted to be, we just have to get further than we did last year now.”
A year ago in Hudson the squad was 2-2, eliminated by back-to-back loses to the Swampscott Post 57 and Brockton Post 35 on the third day. It is Post 104's third State Final Eight appearance in the last four years.
Despite not having his best fastball, Sam Murray had little problems with the Easton lineup allowing just five hits and one walk and needing just 63 pitches to get through six innings. Only once did he have two men on at any one time, but got out of that mini-threat with a strikeout of cleanup hitter Andy Bloom, one of four on the day for the southpaw, who has a 0.75 ERA in the postseason.
“He wasn’t throwing as hard as he usually does, but his changeup was dropping pretty good,” said catcher Chris Ferro.
After letting a chance slip in the first, loading the bases with no outs and coming up empty. Walpole made up for it in the third, scoring four times after the first two had been retired. Post 104 added three in the fourth and fifth and then topped it off with a pair in the sixth.
Easton starter Billy Humphrey set down Phelan and Hickey to start the third, but the next six batters reached with five hits and a walk.
Nicholson singled and Graham walked to get the rally started. Cabral knocked an 0-1 pitch in on his fists into left for a RBI single. Graham took third and Cabral headed to second as the throw sailed to the plate, and a second throw went into center allowing Graham to score for a 2-0 lead.
“We could have gotten out of that with one run if we make the right play at third or second and they’re out of the inning it’s a 1-0 ballgame, the next thing you know it’s 4-0,” said Easton manager Tom Maloof. “They’ve got the killer instinct, there’s no doubt about that. ”
Ferro followed by crushing a triple to left-center that run under the pine trees that inhabit Frothingham Park. Murray brought home the fourth run of the frame, beating out a bouncer back through the middle.
“Two outs, nobody on and we end up scoring four, that’s disheartening to your opponent,” said Walpole coach Chris Costello. “It looked like you got out of the inning clean, they’ve got some momentum, (Humphrey) had retired eight in a row at that point and Pat strung together a good at-bat and we strung together some big two-out hits.”
Walpole played smallball to get three in the fourth with a pair of bunts and a seeing-eye single. A Phelan walk, Hickey bunt single and Nicholson fly out put runners at the corners with one out. Clean-up hitter Graham then laid down a perfect squeeze bunt for one run, with the throw to first being getting away to score Hickey as well and send Graham to third, who pulled up with a cramp in his left hamstring along the way.
Cabral greeted reliever Tom Herron of Xaverian with a bleeder through the hole on the right side of a drawn in infield for a 7-0 cushion.
The top five in the Walpole lineup went a combined 12-for-20 with nine runs and seven RBI and again got the job done with two outs in the fifth. Phelan (2-for-3, 2 walks) walked and a single into the hole on the left side by Hickey put runners on the corners as third base was left unoccupied. The duo executed a double steal for an 8-0 advantage. A Nicholson RBI single and Graham double to right-center made the lead 10-0.
Phelan added an RBI single and Hickey plated another run on a booted ball for two more in the sixth.
Walpole rising sophomore southpaw Tom Ryan made his postseason debut, giving up one hit in a scoreless seventh, getting four ground balls.
“The number (of pitchers) I’ve always thought to win the state championship is six,” said Costello, who feels he has seven dependable arms capable of getting outs. “It was important to get (Ryan) an inning here in the playoffs in this situation. He’s proven that he can pitch and in that situation he did exactly what we needed — he threw strikes and let the guys play behind him.”
Walpole will open the State Final Eight at Szot Park in Chicopee Tuesday against host Post 452 in the last of the four games in the opening day of the tournament.
