By DAN PAWLOWSKI
WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield Townies made their Friday night plans pretty clear early on in their Northeast Baseball League semifinal matchup against Mercedes Baseball of Lawrence last night at Walsh Field.
With a 5-run 1st inning, a 9-0 lead after 3 and an 11-1 final in 5 innings, the Townies punched their ticket early to the Northeast League’s U16 Div. 1 three-game championship series where they will meet Lowell, starting back at Walsh Field on Friday, 5:45 p.m. for game one.
Wakefield’s offense was certainly dangerous as each player in the starting lineup got on base at least once.
Charles Gagne collected two hits from his leadoff spot and four different players –Aidan Bligh (3 RBI), Dylan McDermott (2RBI), Marc Gagne (RBI) and John Fitzgerald (RBI) – racked up RBI knocks to lead the way.
Meanwhile, the mound at Walsh belonged to the Brothers Gagne.
Marc (3IP, 0H, 1BB, 0ER, 5K) and Charles (2IP, 1H, 2BB, 1ER, 4K) combined to surrender just one hit and 1 run while striking out 9 in a dominant performance. The two southpaws were mostly unhittable, but when they were, Wakefield’s defense was ready with some highlight reel plays, especially in the 2nd when Fitzgerald threw a runner out at home after backing up an overthrow to third and in the 4th when second baseman Nicolo Labieniec knocked down a screaming liner and threw out another runner at the plate for the first out of wild, inning-ending double play.
Wakefield’s 5-run 1st started with an infield single by Charles Gagne. After a stolen base, the first of multiple errors by a rotation of Mercedes right fielders put runners at 2nd and 3rd. Later with one out, Bligh opened the scoring, bringing home Gagne and Jayvith Chea on a double to the gap in right-center.
McDermott followed with an RBI single and after a walk drawn by Labieniec, Fitzgerald tested the right fielder again with a tricky liner and came away with an RBI base hit for a 4-0 advantage. Labieniec scored on a wild pitch before the inning later ended on a pickoff.
After a 1,2,3 1st, Marc Gagne walked the leadoff batter in the 2nd but battled back with his second strikeout of the day on a high heater. A steal of 3rd base resulted in an overthrow but Fitzgerald was ready in left field, putting himself in position to field it and make a great throw home to catcher Colin Ala who held his ground and put the tag on in a physical sequence that resulted in the second out with the shutout still in tact. McDermott followed with a nice play on a tough grounder at third base to end the inning.
Wakefield added two more in the bottom of the 2nd. A one-out double by Charles Gagne got the rally going. A single for most, Gagne made a great read as the center fielder went to collect and got to second standing. Back-to-back errors, first at short then in right again made it 6-0 and Bligh picked up his 3rd RBI on a groundout to push the lead to 7-0.
Marc Gagne struck out the side in the 3rd with each coming on backwards K’s as he used a smart combination of off-speed and fastballs to freeze the hitters.
The Townies tacked on two more in the 3rd after walks to Fitzgerald and Sean O’Rourke and then an error on a stolen base. One final right field error pushed it to 9-0.
Charles Gagne came on in the 4th a walk and later a wild pitch got Mercedes on the board but Labieniec’s great sequence at second started a double play. After the runner was thrown out at home, Gagne pointed to third with another runner walking towards the dugout, thinking it was the third out. Ala fired to McDermott who made the tag and ended the frame.
Building on their two-run insurance theme, Wakefield’s two in the 4th came on an RBI double down the right field line by Marc Gagne and an RBI groundout by McDermott.
Charles Gagne ended the game in style by striking out the side as the Townies made their 11-1 mercy-rule victory final. Wakefield improved to 10-0 on the season with the win.
After Friday’s game one, game two will take place in Lowell on Monday, 5:45 p.m. most likely at Alumni Field where the Townies beat Lowell 14-1 last week. In their first matchup of the season on June 20 at Walsh, Wakefield won 14-5.
If the series goes to three games, the Townies would host the rubber match on Wednesday, 5:45 p.m. at Walsh.