Canton Legion team spoils Braintree’s perfect start

With a 7-2 record and a win last week over previously unbeaten Braintree, the Canton American Legion Post 24 baseball team is off to a great start.

It’s not one player excelling but the entire squad made up of Canton, Sharon, and Stoughton players chipping in with key hits, defensive plays, or helping out on the pitching end.

“It’s a different guy every night,” said head coach Greg Lyons. “We have pitching, solid defense, and timely hitting. I think we have to work on more consistent hitting, but we have shown we can beat anyone in this league.”

Earlier this week, Brad Zonghetti pitched Canton to a 4-3 win over Quincy, earning his second victory of the season with a complete-game outing.

But the key pitching outing of the week came Friday night under the lights at Braintree as Stoughton’s Ryan Sullivan pitched a brilliant game, limiting Braintree to three hits and one unearned while striking out four batters.

The Canton fielding was also outstanding with several fine plays by shortstop Kevin Powers, a great lunging catch by centerfielder Pat Hagerty, and good fielding by second baseman Ruben Gonzalez, third baseman Jack Connelly, and catcher Jake Marglous, who threw out a runner trying to steal third base to thwart a Braintree rally in the sixth.

Canton struck early in the first inning with Aidan Arnold singling in Luke Johnson, who had doubled. In the second inning, Gonzales doubled in two runs to up the lead to 3-0. Braintree scored its only run in the fourth on a popup error and a triple.

In the win over Quincy, the Canton offense was sparked by RBIs by Powers and Andrew Bryant and hits by Joe Peccia, Gonzales, and Marglous.

In other action last week, Canton beat Milton 3-2 and Holbrook 4-3. In the Milton win, Zonghetti was credited with the win, assisted in relief by Max Tarlin. Gonzalez, Connelly, and Arnold all had RBIs for the victors.

The 4-3 win over Holbrook was set up by the relief pitching of Sullivan, who struck out two batters in the seventh inning and then drove in the winning run with a base hit. Johnson, Hagerty, and Marglous all had RBIs while Sullivan, Arnold, and Gonzales each had two hits.

Canton’s only loss of the week came against Cohasset 8-5 despite coming back from a 4-1 deficit to tie the game at 4-4 in the fifth inning.

Post 24 was due to face Weymouth on Monday at home and then travel to Quincy on Tuesday, Holbrook on Wednesday, and then come home to host Hyde Park tomorrow, June 30 at 5:45 p.m., and Milton Sunday, July 2, also at 5:45 p.m.

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Posted by Mike Berger on Jun 30 2017. Filed under Beyond CHS, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.