By STEPHEN MARTELUCCI
WAYLAND—The Melrose 15U Lou Tompkins baseball team reached the playoffs this summer as they went 7-6 in the regular season.
They were the seventh-seed in the B Division Select Division playoffs (the top eight of 12 total teams qualify) and they faced second-seeded Wayland in the first round.
On Aug. 4 at Wayland High School, Melrose was nipped, 2-1, in eight-innings.
“It was a heart breaker,” admitted Melrose manager Brain Fogarty. “They had a older team but we gave them a very good challenge.”
Christian Fogarty went all 7.1 innings allowing two runs, seven hits, one walk and he struck out three. Melrose had just four hits in the game. “It was a great pitchers dual,” said coach Fogarty.
With that loss, the team went into the losers bracket and visited Georgetown the next night. There, they suffered another one-run eight-inning defeat as they lost 7-6.
“It was a shame because we got of to a 6-1 lead heading into the fifth inning,” pointed out Fogarty. “However, we were not able to make the plays we needed to down the stretch.”
The comeback took away a win for Melrose starter Drew Saccocia while went six innings. He gave up four runs and fanned three. “Drew pitched well,” said Fogarty.
Georgetown scored twice in the seventh to tie it and got the game-winner with one out in the bottom of the eighth.
The Melrose offense had 13 hits led by Reid Sterling and Calvin Hoag, who were both 2 for 3 with two runs batted in. Sterling reached base three times that night. Cooper Anderson was the team’s other multiple hitter going 2 for 4. Emry Vanderhoof added an RBI single. Fogarty, who coached the 13-year old team in the league last year, enjoys the Lou Tompkins set-up.
“We started the season on June 24 when school is out,” he pointed out. “We then play all of the games on weeknights so if kids are playing for other teams on the weekends they are able to do that. It is a great league.”
Fogarty was very busy this summer as he also coached the Melrose 14-year old All-Star team that won the state title and competed in Pennsylvania in the Junior Eastern Regional Tournament. All of the players on that team were also on the Lou Tompkins team along with a few other players.
Wayland ended up beating Belmont for the Select Division title
The Lou Tompkins league has three Divisions (A, B, C) for different age groups and 57 overall teams. Melrose also had a C Division team for the 13 and under age group. Of the 18 players on the B team’s roster, 14 are eligible to return next summer.