Canton A’s wrap up impressive regular season

By Mike Berger

The Canton A’s, having finished one of their best regular seasons in years, will start the Stan Musial postseason tournament this weekend with an away game on Saturday followed by a home game on Sunday at 1 p.m. at CHS.

Clockwise from top: Chuck Erickson, Brian Trupiano, John Garabedian, Chris Puliafico, Mike Trachtenberg, Pat Bogue and Joe Belmosto

The first playoff game will be an entry from the North Shore League, either at Peabody or North Andover.

The Stan Musial Tournament employs a double-elimination format, where a team remains alive until it loses two games. The tournament this year is made up of five teams from the Cranberry League, as well as teams from the North Shore League and the Sunset League in Rhode Island.

This year marks the A’s first appearance in the Stan Musial Tournament in two years, with the team’s previous invitation coming after another team had opted out of the tourney.

“It’s the first time in three years we actually earned this spot, and we feel we can go far,” said head coach Kee Arguimbau. “We have an excellent team, made up of really good pitchers and timely hitters.”

The A’s finished fourth in the Cranberry League this season at 13-9-1, one game behind third-place Rockland (13-8-1).

The team has had a full week to rest and prepare for the playoffs after wrapping up the regular season last Thursday. Five Canton A’s — Joe Belmosto, Mark Nelson, Steve Delanian, John Garabedian and Chuck Erickson — were selected for the league all-star team, which defeated the Boston Park League All Stars 14-4 on July 15.

Canton ended the season going 1-1 over its final two games, beating Weymouth for the second consecutive day 2-0 but falling to Easton 7-2 at home. Against Weymouth, starter and three-game winner Alec Palioca turned in a dominant performance, striking out 10 and limiting Weymouth to just five hits. Arguimbau said Palioca or lefthander Garrett Hayward will likely be the starter in this weekend’s tournament opener.

The A’s had enough offense to beat Weymouth behind a double by Garabedian and an RBI single by Belmosto. The second run was scored when Mike Trachtenberg walked, stole second and came home on an RBI single by Erickson. Catcher Chris Pulafico also had a double in the game.

In the loss to Easton, the game was close for five innings as starter Brian Bodjiak pitched well for five innings and left with Easton holding a 2-1 lead into the sixth. Canton’s Chris Smith came on in relief and ended up being the victim of some controversial umpire calls before giving up a bases-clearing double.

“The team really didn’t play well,” Arguimbau said afterwards. “We made some defensive mistakes and we took the game for granted. But we are all excited to play our first playoff game at home.”

The team is also looking forward to the return of designated hitter Alex Rossi, who has been out with an injury but is expected to be in the lineup when the playoffs get underway.

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