Post 24 rebounds with big win vs. Stoughton

Led by the superlative pitching of Jake Fishman and the hustle and hitting of Drew Blake, Steve Mullaney and Matt Schaffer, the Canton American Legion baseball team snapped a three-game losing skid with a 7-1 win over Stoughton Sunday night.

Canton’s Drew Blake has been on fire at the plate.

The win evens Canton’s record at 9-9 and gives the team a two-point lead in the hunt for the final playoff spot in District 6 East. As of Monday morning, July 14, Canton had five games left and one game to be rescheduled with division leading Hyde Park (17-2) if the game has any impact on the playoff picture.

Canton has a game every day this week, with road games against Cohasset July 15, Holbrook July 16, and home games against Milton July 18 (today) and Stoughton July 19, with the games starting at 5:45 p.m. at CHS. The playoffs begin next week.

Canton began play last week with a come-from-behind win over Quincy 3-2 before losing three in a row to Braintree 4-3, Hyde Park 18-7, and Weymouth 5-2.

With games almost every day, head coach Greg Lyons’ biggest challenge has been finding enough pitchers. Sam Larson has gone to play AAU ball for the next week, and pitcher Jimmy Fitzgerald has been unavailable for most of the season with an injury.

Fishman, on the other hand, dazzled in both of Canton’s wins last week. On Sunday he limited Stoughton to four hits, walked one, and struck out 10, including four batters in a row.

Tied 1-1 going into the seventh inning, Mullaney legged out a double and Kevin Powers beat out a bunt. Mullaney was tagged out on a suicide squeeze at the plate, but a Stoughton error on a Kevin O’Brien fly ball gave Canton a 2-1 lead. Canton then added to its lead with a two-run single by Blake, an RBI double by Frank Sullivan, and a sacrifice fly by Nate Pedersen. Schaffer had two infield hits and contributed defensively.

In the game against Quincy, Canton was trailing 2-0 when Mullaney delivered a key two-run single with the bases loaded to tie the game in the fourth inning. The winning run came in the bottom of the sixth on a single by Pat Vartanian, who knocked in Fishman from second after he had led off with a double. For the game, Fishman gave up only two hits and struck out five.

The next night against Braintree, Larson pitched seven strong innings and left with the score tied 3-3 before Braintree pushed across a run in the eighth. Blake drove in two runs while O’Brien, Pedersen, Vartanian, Mullaney,  and Schaffer all had hits.

The following day Canton struggled against Hyde Park, committing four errors while playing on the turf at Catholic Memorial. Blake continued his hot hitting with two hits, including a three-run homerun.

Against Weymouth, Canton’s Kevin Powers pitched well through four innings and was given a 2-0 lead thanks to RBIs by Vartanian and Pedersen. But Weymouth capitalized on two wild pitches and an error to tie the game in the top of the fifth and then took the lead for good in the sixth with a combination of aggressive baserunning and timely hitting. Weymouth also managed to shut down the Canton offense, allowing just two hits after the opening inning.

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Posted by Mike Berger on Jul 18 2013. Filed under Beyond CHS, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.