By STEPHEN MARTELLUCCI
CRANSTON, RI — A very memorable postseason run came to an end last Friday night for the Melrose 10-year-old Little League All-Star team as they fell to Fairfield National (Connecticut), 11-1, at Varrato Field in Cranston, Rhode Island in the New England championship game.
Melrose, the Massachusetts state champions, ended the New England’s going 3-2. Fairfield then lost on Aug. 12 to Pennsylvania for the Eastern Regional title.
“We made a couple of errors and they were able to capitalize on them,” said Melrose head coach Dan Cordella “They played incredible defense because we put a ton of balls in play.”
Fairfield, who won the first game over Melrose, 2-0 on Aug. 6 in the pool-play round, scored in every inning except the second.
Melrose was only able to get three hits led by Sam Kirsh who went 2 for 2. He also had the lone RBI with his triple to center in the bottom of the fourth. Oliver Pechulis, who singled, scored on that hit.
On Aug. 9, in the final pool-play game, Melrose defeated the host team, Cranston, 11-2. Owen Pillsbury was the winning pitcher in this one going the first two innings. He gave up no runs, one hit, no walks and he fanned two.
Melrose scored single runs in the first and second innings. They plated two in the third, three in the fourth and four more in the top of the sixth.
“We took advantage of their mistakes,” said Cordella, as nine of the runs scored were unearned.
Overall, Cranston committed six errors.
The offense had five hits led by Mike Tierney who was 1 for 2 with a walk and a team-high four runs batted in. Dev Sullivan delivered a two-run double for his lone hit while Pechulis was 1 for 2 and was hit by a pitch his other time up.
Joe Weaver pitched three key innings in relief giving up just two runs.
“He came up big,” said Cordella. “We were limited with the amount of pitchers we had and he stepped up.”
On Aug. 8, Melrose hammered Wells, Maine, 17-3, in a five-inning mercy-rule game as Melrose plated five runs in the fifth inning to end the game.
Leading, 3-2, going into the bottom of the fourth, Melrose erupted for eight runs to turn the game into a rout.
“We jumped on their new pitcher that cam in that inning,” pointed out Cordella, whose squad pounded out 15 hits.
Alex Ogiva was 2 for 2 with a walk and two RBI while Pechulis, Tierney and Lawton Chisholm all were 2 for 3.
Pechulis had a walk, an RBI and scored three times. Chisholm had two RBI and gunned down a runner with a great throw from center field. Tierney had one RBI and scored twice.
Weaver went 2 for 4 with two RBI as the team had five multiple hitters.
Tierney was the winning pitcher, going the first two frames. Kirsh and Chisholm pitched the rest of the game and not allow any runs.
Overall in the tournament, Melrose went 12-3. They were 4-0 in District 12 and then went 3-1 in the sectionals before going 2-0 in the state finals.
This is also the first Little League team from Melrose to capture the state title in any age group.
“I am so incredibly proud of them,” stated Cordella. “They represented Melrose and were very mature for a 10-year-old team.”
Cordella is hoping that he can manage this squad next year in the 11-year old tournament.
“The future for them is very bright,” he said. “These kids looked up to the older kids and now, younger kids will be looking up to them.”