Baseball team reaches Division 3 playoffs

Junior Andrew Vinciguerra has had a solid season at the plate for the tourney-bound Bulldogs.

It was a very good day for CHS baseball Sunday at Memorial Field when the Bulldogs came from behind to beat Dover-Sherborn 7-6, and in the process earned a ticket to the postseason for the first time in many years.

With a 5-11 record, the team enters the playoffs by virtue of beating a majority of Division 3 opponents, much like the CHS boys’ basketball team qualified for the state playoffs in the winter. The playoffs will begin after the Memorial Day weekend.

“This is a great moment for us and in particular the seniors,” CHS head coach Junior Medina said. “You can see the younger players getting better and better and improving. We are getting great at bats and we also have some great young arms.”

Because of rainy weather, two games were scheduled for Memorial Field Sunday afternoon with Oliver Ames (12-2) the first opponent. Canton played very well despite losing 3-1, as a trio of young pitchers (Elias Camacho, Sam Larson and T.J. Duggan) pitched quite well and were quite competitive against a hot-hitting Tiger team.

In the second game, Matt Bernstein returned after an injury and gutted out a complete-game win, getting stronger as the game went along. Bernstein also had a good day at the plate, getting on many times and stealing several bases.

The Bulldogs, down 6-4, came alive in the bottom of the sixth inning to secure the win. Zakhar Abugov led off with a walk and advanced to second on an infield hit by A.J. Waterman. Bernstein walked to load the bases and Canton squeezed home two runs to tie the game on a passed ball and a sacrifice fly by Mike Oldenburg. Another passed ball allowed the winning run.

Bernstein closed out the game in the seventh despite an error and stolen base. “Matty really fought this and pitched well,” Medina said. “With a doubleheader and short on pitching arms, we told Matty we really needed him and he really came through.”

Sophomore Drew Blake

A pop-fly error cost Bernstein two unearned runs to open the game, but the Bulldogs came back in the bottom of the inning with three runs on RBI singles by Drew Blake and Matt Potts and a ground out RBI by Tom Nickel. Dover-Sherborn came back to pull ahead 5-3, but Nickel hit a 326-foot homerun over the right field fence to close the score to 5-4 entering the sixth inning.

In the earlier game, Oliver Ames tallied single runs in the first, third and fifth to pull ahead 3-0 entering the fifth inning. Nickel had the Bulldogs’ first hit in the fifth inning and Canton scored its first run in the sixth as Potts hit a double and came in on a run-producing single by Matt Nichols. With two runners on, Canton almost tied the score on a sharp line-drive out by Andrew Vinciguerra but the OA second baseman made a leaping grab.

All three pitchers, Camacho, Larson, and Duggan, pitched well and received praise for their improvement by Medina. Blake had several hits but was twice thrown out at second trying to stretch a hit into a double.

CHS had two more regular season games scheduled this week, including a home game against Stoughton on May 23 and a Thursday “cross-over” game to be scheduled against the larger division bracket of the Hockomock League.

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