Walpole American Legion Post 104 baseball coach Chris Costello gave his team an impromptu math lesson after last night’s 8-5 extra-inning loss to Norfolk last night, explaining that the difference between sitting at 2-6 and 3-5 at this point in the season is more than just one game.
“It’s monumental, especially going into four games in three days,” said Costello. “We could have potentially pulled ourselves out of hole. Just giving it away was disappointing.”
Walpole sent the game to extra frames on an Alex Phelan sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh, but Brendan Smith’s trickler through a drawn-in infield with the bases-loaded broke a 5-5 tie in a three-run run eighth inning for Post 335 that stood up as the final margin.
After breezing to the top seed in District 6 West each of the past two seasons, including an unbeaten run last summer, Walpole’s slow start has them tied at the bottom of the standings and in jeopardy of missing the playoffs at 2-6, especially with discussion of shortening the 22-game season to 18 games because of all the weather postponements this summer.
On the other hand, Norfolk closed the gap between itself and West-leading Norwood, improving to 7-5, four points back of Post 70 with a game in hand.
“I honestly didn’t see us in second place right now but I am pleasantly surprised and the boys are playing like they deserve it,” said Norfolk manager Mark Gafur. “If we get a little help and some other teams put some licks on Norwood and we’ll catch them a little bit here.”
Down 5-4 heading into the bottom of seventh, Walpole’s Jon Kelley blasted a one-out triple to deep left for his second extra-base hit of the game. Xaverian teammate Phelan, who had single and scored in the fifth to pull Walpole within a run, followed with a line drive to left that hung up long enough to be caught, but easily plated a tagging Kelly with the tying score.
But Walpole’s bullpen ran into control problem in the eighth. After getting the first out, Mike Baryski, who had worked two sharp innings of relief of starter Connor Thornton, walked the next two batters and Walpole went to fellow southpaw Tom Ryan, who walked the first batter he faced to load the bases.
Post 104 brought the infield in for Smith, who hit a slow grounder up the middle that got through to bring home a pair and put Norfolk up 7-5. Kevin Pimental added a two-out single to tack on an insurance run.
“We are not making pitches or defense plays when we need to and that’s been our bread and butter forever,” said Costello.
A one-out walk by Sam Murray was all Walpole could muster in the bottom of the eighth against Greg King, who earned the save in relief of starter Jarrod Clement.
The teams traded runs the first couple innings. Thornton did a nice job of limiting Norfolk to just a run on a sacrifice fly in the top of the first after Post 335 loaded the bases with no outs. A Kelley opposite field double and a pair of ground outs tied it for Walpole, which was 4-for-4 on the night in getting runners home from third with less than two outs.
A two-out RBI triple by Connor Richards just out of the reach of a diving Adam Nichols in left put Norfolk back ahead 2-1 in the second, but Walpole had a two-run answer in the bottom half.
This time it was Walpole that loaded the bases with no outs off Clement, who just completed his freshman year at St. Sebastian’s, on a Murray single and walks to Pat Falvey and Nichols. Ryan O’Coin tied the game with a sacrifice fly and Jimmy Adams squeezed home the go-ahead run, getting the bunt down on his second attempt, to make it 3-2.
The fifth proved to be a turning point as Norfolk turned what looked to be an innocent inning into a pivotal three-run frame. Thornton got two quick outs before walking Clement, but got Pimental to hit a squibber up the first baseline. But while Thornton made the pitch to get himself out of the inning, he could not make the play as an underhand flip after a slight bobble pulled Joe Cabral off first base, leaving Pimental safe and runners on first and second.
Joey Tornabene made him pay with a two-run double and Paul Everett followed with an RBI single for a 5-3 lead.
“Those are plays we have got to make if we are playoff team, maybe we are not a playoff team,” said Costello. “We’re going to know Sunday night which direction we are going into the last 10 says, whether we are playing young guys and going after it for next year or whether were going to get back into it. We’ll know on 72 hours which direction we are going in.”
(Tom Fargo is Sports Editor for the Daily News Transcript. He can be reached at (781) 433-8372 or tfargo@cnc.com.)
