BRENDAN CASEY follows through on his 2-run homer in the 4th inning of last night’s 7-4 Brewers win over the Slappers at Moulton Field. Casey also had a 2-RBI double in the 1st. (Dan Pawlowski Photo)
By DAN PAWLOWSKI
WAKEFIELD — Last night’s Twi League game meant more to the Slappers but it was the first-place Brewers who kept their freight-train of a season rolling through Moulton Field with a 7-4 victory, moving to 10-1 as they continue their quest to “three-peat” as Twi champs.
The 5th-place Slap, meanwhile, fell to 3-6-1 with one more game to chase a final playoff spot and the 4th-place Loafers who are 4-5 with two games to go.
The Slappers set the tone early in this one with 2 runs in the top of the 1st but the Brew Crew responded immediately with 4 in the home half, taking a lead that they wouldn’t relinquish, even when the Slappers cut it to 5-4 in the 4th. The Brewers added two more in their 4th and Chris Casey shut out the Slappers the rest of the way for a three-inning save.
The Brewers had plenty of players with strong games at the dish including Matt Fiore (2-for-4, RBI), Tom Leahy (2-for-2, 2RBI) and John Halsey (2-for-3) but it was cleanup hitter Brendan Casey (2-for-2, HR, 4RBI) who did the most damage, including a clutch, 2-run homer in the 4th which turned a tense, 5-4 game into a comfortable 7-4 Brew Crew lead.
The Slap’s 2-run 1st started with a Jake Baressi RBI single, which scored Benny Tomsyck who had previously doubled with one out. After a single by Matt Mercurio and a hit by pitch, Ryan DiBenedetto walked to make it 2-0. Brewer starter Chris Coombs settled down to limit the damage by getting a strikeout and a groundout to end it.
The Brewers wasted no time in responding during the bottom of the 1st. Chris Casey led off with a walk, followed by an RBI double from Fiore, who carried over his swing from the night before when he hit one out of Moulton for the first time in his 20-year Twi League career, with an RBI double to deep left.
After a Halsey walk, Brendan Casey’s first bomb of the night stayed in play but resulted in a 2-RBI double. Later, with runners at the corners and two outs, Leahy beat a throw after a tough chopper to third to make it 4-2.
Fiore climbed the mound and kept the Slap off the board in the 2nd and 3rd innings while the Brewers added one more in the 3rd on an RBI base hit from Leahy, scoring Mike Greer who had a leadoff double.
Darren Bisso came in to pitch for the Brewers in the 4th and the Slappers got the bats going again, plating two to make it a one-run deficit.
Pinch-hitter Robert Shaw led off with a triple to the Maples in centerfield and later with two outs and runners at the corners, Baressi came through again with his 2nd and 3rd RBI’s of the night, crushing a double to left that was likely destined for a homer but was knocked down by a tree – one of Moulton’s more entertaining habits.
Mercurio’s sky-high pop-up to no-man’s land in shallow left looked like a game-tying hit with three players converging on it at full-speed until shortstop Fiore called it and made a wild catch on a last second adjustment.
Fiore kept that momentum to lead off the bottom of the 4th with a base hit, setting up Casey’s impressive homer, which was hammered over the fence in left.
The ball was hit so hard that the head baseball coach at WPI was lucky nobody at 1 Byron St. was working a grill or watering some flowers, especially with one of Wakefield’s patrolmen stopping by to catch some of the action. Thankfully, no injuries occurred and the only ones waiting at the plate for Casey were his teammates who were celebrating a 7-4 lead.
Not to be outdone by his brother, Chris Casey came on in the 5th and sat the Slap down in order. He only gave up one hit and one base runner in the final three frames as the Brew Crew cruised to double-digit wins.
There are five games left this week, the last week of the Twi League’s regular season. The playoffs will begin next week with a best-of-three semifinal series.