Legion Post 24 goes 1-2 in abbreviated week
By Mike BergerThe rain-shortened week ended on a bang-bang play at the plate as the Canton American Legion Post 24 baseball team fell to Brookline 2-1 on Sunday.
With all the rain last week, Canton only managed to get in two other games: an 8-0 win over Foxboro thanks to an outstanding pitching performance by team ace Dave Roberto, and a 12-9 loss to Needham in which Canton committed several costly errors.
With a little over half the season gone, Canton is now 3-5 and in eighth place in the District 6 West Division.
On Sunday against Brookline, Canton wasted a solid outing by Casey Sullivan, who threw a complete game, striking out six while limiting Brookline to six hits. He had one troublesome inning in the third where he gave up a walk, a single and a double, sandwiched around a double steal for two runs.
Down 2-0 in the bottom of the seventh, Canton staged a mini-rally as Chris Barletta drew a two-out walk and then advanced to second on a hit by Ben Peterson. Barletta came in to score on a gap double by Dan Friedman, but the game ended when the Brookline catcher tagged Peterson out at the plate.
The Post 24 team had a number of scoring chances, wasting a one-out, 370-foot triple by Drew Blake and stranding several runners on base in other innings. They also hit a lot of hard lineouts outs and deep fly balls. Canton played errorless ball for the first time this season, and catcher Matt Nichols threw out a runner attempting to steal second base.
Canton’s best effort of the week came Friday as Roberto limited Foxboro to four hits and struck out seven in a dominant win. Barletta was the chief offensive weapon with two hits and four RBIs. Blake had two hits, and Dan Friedman had a hit and two RBIs. Colin Clapton, Nichols, Matt Potts and Nate Peterson each had a hit.
Canton got off to a good start against Needham, leading 4-0 in the fourth inning. But four errors allowed Needham to put up 10 runs in a single inning. “It was not a good game for us,” said head coach Colin Clapton Sr.
“We have shown that when we play well, we are a pretty good team,” he said. “When we play smart, we are tough.”
Leading the offense against Needham were Andrew Vinciguerra with two hits and four RBIs, Nate Peterson with three hits and two RBIs, and Potts with a pair of hits. Clapton, Barletta, Blake and Brennan Sullivan each had one hit.
With better weather expected this week, the Legion team is playing every day before the holiday break, including Monday versus Westwood, Tuesday at Westwood, Wednesday versus Medfield, Thursday (tonight) versus Franklin at 5:45, and Friday at Walpole at 5:45. Canton resumes action in Norwood on Tuesday, July 5, at 7:30 p.m.
Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=6248
Posted by Mike Berger
on Jun 29 2011. Filed under Beyond CHS, Sports.
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