Legion baseball team bows in District 6 semis

Post 24 pitcher Brad Zonghetti pitches against a Braintree batter in a regular season game. (Photo courtesy of Greg Lyons)

A close semifinals loss to Walpole in the American Legion District 6 baseball playoffs ended an exciting and productive season for the Canton Post 24 team last week.

The July 24 evening at Braintree High began with a 9-7 win over regular season champion Quincy and ended with a 5-4 defeat to No. 2 Walpole, which also handed Canton its first loss in the double-elimination tournament a few days earlier by an identical 5-4 score.

The next night, Braintree went on to capture the District 6 championship, edging Walpole 6-5 in the finals.

Overall, Canton finished the summer with a record of 16-6-1, including a 3-2 mark in the playoffs with wins over Norwood, Franklin and Quincy. It was the fourth consecutive postseason appearance for Post 24 and the team’s second straight trip to the district semifinals.

While losing some key contributors from the 2017 squad, head coach Greg Lyons said he knew going into this season that the team had the talent and depth to make another deep postseason run. Still, he was very pleased to see the players jell so quickly and develop into a cohesive unit with a team-first mentality.

“It is always hard holding an 18-man roster as a coach and keeping everyone in the mix and motivated to show up every day, ready to go,” said Lyons, a former Legion player and CHS baseball standout. “But this summer it came easy. Everyone accepted their roles on the team and were ready to step up when their name was called upon.”

All in all, Lyons said this year’s team enjoyed “a hell of a season — and a dominant one at that.”

Although disappointed to lose another close game and fall short of the finals, Lyons said the Post 24 players “left everything on the field.”

“Unfortunately, baseball can be a tough sport and Walpole got that bounce instead,” he said. “That’s just the way baseball goes sometimes and I made sure to let them all know that after the loss. They never gave up, never said die, until the final out of the game and season. We had bases loaded with one out in the seventh versus Walpole’s 6’5” righty ace throwing in the high 80s, and we just didn’t get the bounce. But we proved to everyone and ourselves that we were a legitimate contender and baseball team and we’re not to be taken lightly anymore.”

Canton’s Andrew Bryant got the nod against Walpole and pitched six strong innings in the loss. Bryant also recorded an RBI with Aidan Arnold (2) and Steve Walker driving in the other runs for Canton.

In the quarterfinal win over Quincy, Justin Wenstrom drew the start with Brad Zonghetti coming on in relief. Nate Quan paced the offense with three RBIs while Arnold, Bryant, Ruben Gonzalez, Jake Marglous, and Matt Pigeon each had run-producing hits.

Lyons said the current crop of players should be celebrated not only for this season, but for their entire body of work and “how far they have helped me and my coaches take the program.”

“Now our next step is to get over the district semis hump and into the finals and see what happens from there,” he said. “But don’t get me wrong, I understand talented groups like this year’s team only come along every so often … but one thing I know is that the program is heading in the right direction, thanks to these kids and teams from the past two to three years prior to this one.”

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Posted by Mike Berger on Aug 4 2018. Filed under Beyond CHS, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.