Legion baseball team misses playoffs despite exciting finish

The American Legion Post 24 baseball team’s season ended late last week as the team finished 8-9, narrowly missing the playoffs by four points in the standings. The top five teams in District 6 West made the playoffs, including Walpole, Franklin, Westwood, Norwood, and Foxboro, which finished slightly better than Canton at 9-7-2.

Coached by Junior Medina, the Canton team managed to beat every team in the division this year except for Walpole. The team lost several one-run decisions, especially early in the year, which ultimately cost them a spot in the playoffs. Still, the team provided lots of excitement for the fans, including several late-game rallies. Canton used an aggressive style on the bases, implementing several steals, bunts, and hit and runs.

“This season was fun,” said Medina. “The players on the team really played well all season. I feel if our pitchers stayed healthy all season we would have done a little better, but that is baseball. We ended the season on a good note, beating teams we needed to beat. Overall good season, great kids, and great support from Canton Post 24 and all players and parents.”

Last week, Canton lost to Walpole 7-1, but came back to beat Foxboro in extra innings and staged another rally the next night to beat Westwood. But the final crushing blow came on Friday night as Canton fell to Needham 7-5. The regular season finale against Medfield was postponed because of rain and not made up.

Canton began the week under scorching conditions as temperatures hovered between 95 and 100 degrees on Monday, July 5. At Walpole, pitcher Joey Wilkinson held the first-place Walpole team hitless through three innings, while Canton squeezed home a run to take a 1-0 lead.

In the fourth inning, Walpole responded with a pair of runs to take a 2-1 lead, but the game was still tight after five innings thanks to Canton catcher Chris Puliafico, who threw out two base stealers. The Walpole bats then came alive in the sixth with four consecutive hits to boost the lead to 7-1.

Against Foxboro, Canton came back from a late three-run deficit to win in eight innings 6-5. In the seventh, John McGonigle and Puliafico reached on errors, and RBI singles by David Zabinsky and Matt Bernstein tied the game.

In the eighth, Dave Roberto singled to open the inning and was replaced on the bases by Wilkinson, who advanced to second on a wild pitch and then to third on a bunt by Brad Asnes before scoring the winning run on a hard single by McGonigle.

In another exciting finish, Canton staged a late rally to overcome Westwood 8-7. Canton used aggressive base running to take a quick 3-0 lead: Sullivan executed a hit and run RBI single for the first run, Dave Khrakovsky delivered a sacrifice bunt for the second run, and Asnes came through with an RBI single for the third run.

Khrakovsky tired in the fifth and gave up four runs as Westwood took the lead 7-3. But Canton refused to give up, cutting the deficit to 7-5  while Rob McCarty pitched well in relief to give the team a chance to win.

In the bottom of the sixth, Asnes started the rally when he beat out a bunt, stole second, and then advanced to third on a wild pitch. Roberto drove him in on a groundout, and a key single by McGonigle tied the game at 7. The crowd at CHS then roared as Puliafico hit a booming double to center field for the winning run.

In the Needham game, Canton kept coming back but couldn’t get past an early 6-1 deficit. Canton made it 6-4 in the fourth inning on a double by Puliafico and a single by Asnes. But a costly error in the outfield allowed Needham to increase its lead to 7-4 at the end of four. Canton added a run in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Freedman, but could get no closer after that.

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Posted by Mike Berger on Jul 15 2010. Filed under Beyond CHS, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.