Red Sox beat Guardians for senior league title in all-Wakefield matchup

 

By DAN PAWLOWSKI

WAKEFIELD — The Middlesex Big Diamond League championship was held at Wakefield High’s Walsh Field last night. Of course, the location made sense for both the Red Sox and Guardians, each of Wakefield and the last two standing in an eight-team league that also included two teams from Lynnfield, one from Stoneham, one from Woburn and one from North Reading.

In the end, the trophy went to the Sox, whose high-powered offense broke out for 7 runs in the 4^th to take command of a game they would end up winning 14-3.

Of course, getting to Walsh was a big accomplishment on its own. The Guardians finished the season at 12-2-1, beating North Reading in the first round and the Wakefield Rockies in the semifinals. The Red Sox went 11-3-1, topping Woburn in the first round and Lynnfield in the semifinals.

The Sox gave the ball to Jack Millward (4.2 IP, 5H, 2ER, 0BB, 8K), who set the tone early, striking out six and allowing just one hit while shutting the Guardians out in the first three innings.

The Red Sox had built a 4-0 lead during that stretch before their big 4^th inning. Leading the way for the Sox at the plate was Danny Curran who went 3-for-3 with 4 RBI and 2 runs scored. Millward went 2-for-2 with a walk and 3 runs scored; Ulysses Guerin was 2-for-3 with an RBI and 2 runs and Rhys Dhingra was 2-for-3 with 2 RBI and a run scored. Patrick Goodwin, Alex Tracy and Matthew Carter each added RBI knocks for the champs.

 

 

The Guardians were led by Matt Rabito who went 2-for-3 with an RBI. Kevin Giberti added an RBI knock during the Guardians’ two-run 5^th.

Millward and Guardians starter Jack Maksou both had 1,2,3 1^st innings.

Millward led off the 2^nd with a base hit and Curran’s RBI double to right-center opened the scoring. A wild pitch later scored Curran before Maksou dug deep with 2 of his 5 strikeouts to get out the frame.

Millward struck out the side in the bottom of the 2^nd thanks to a powerful fastball that he located well all night.

Guerin led off the 3^rd with an infield single and later advanced to 3^rd on a single from Dhingra. The Sox scored on two more wild pitches in the inning but Maksou again responded with two more strikeouts and catcher Ryan McCarthy made a great throw to 3^rd to get a runner to end the inning with the Guardians still very much in it only down 4-0.

McCarthy led off the 3^rd with the Guardians’ best contact of the day to that point but Millward displayed his athleticism with an impressive catch on the hard-hit comebacker before getting the next two on a strikeout and a groundout in another quick inning.

The breakout 4^th for the Red Sox was started with a leadoff hit by Brayden Pan. Later, with runners on 2^nd and 3^rd and one out, Curran connected again, this time on a 2-RBI single to make it 6-0. That was the first of five consecutive hits for the Sox, as Goodwin hit an RBI double, Tracy an RBI single, Carter an RBI single and another base hit for Alex Colarusso. A Guerin groundout brought home another run and a final RBI single, this time from Dhingra made it 11-0.

Tighe Salsman (4.1 IP, 3H, 2ER, 3BB, 3K) entered for the Guardians and got the final out with a strikeout.

 

 

The Guardians, who were missing a couple key players in this one, kept fighting. Rabito, who made multiple strong plays defensively at shortstop, led off the bottom of the 4^th with a single. Later, with two outs, Cam Donegan singled and an error on the throw to first let Maksou come around to score for the Guardians’ first run. With Donegan at 2^nd, Millward buckled down with a strikeout on some high heat to maintain a 10-run lead.

The Guardians added two more in the 5^th. Edward Palmer led off with a single and stole 2^nd. Later with two down, Giberti came through, bringing home Palmer on a well-struck base hit. That finally chased Millward as Carter (1.1 IP, 2H, 0ER, 1BB, 3K) came on to pitch. After a walk to Mike Mititchev, Rabito hit an RBI double to make it 11-3. Carter got a strikeout to end the threat with runners at 2^nd and 3^rd.

Curran’s third RBI hit of the game made it 12-3 in the 6^th and the Sox tacked on two more in the 7^th before Patrick Maloney entered the game to close it out, sitting the Guardians down in order to end it.

In the end, it was an impressive showcase of Wakefield baseball between two talented senior league teams (ages 13-16) with many players getting used to Walsh Field as the place they hope to accomplish plenty with the Wakefield High baseball team in the future.