American Legion: Medfield Picks Up 7-5 Victory over Norfolk Tuesday

Medfield American Legion Post 110 needed strong pitching and defense in the bottom of the seventh Tuesday to prevent a Norfolk come back and secure a 7-5 District 6 victory.

Medfield got both as closer Walker Littlebale shut the door on Norfolk thanks to two key defensive plays in the final inning. Norfolk's Alex lagos ripped a double to left field to start the inning – and the comeback bid. But Littlebale forced Norfolk's Tyler Campo to ground back to the mound and an alert Littlebale threw to third to erase the lead runner. 

Norfolk's Nick Ahearn then hit another shot back to the pitcher, who turned a game-ending double play.

Post 335 Coach Bill Lagos was both happy and disappointed with his team’s overall performance, which dropped Norfolk to 4-6.

“This is a good team. You make some plays that make a coach light up and then you make some silly mistakes,” he said. “We’ve beaten better teams and tonight was another of those games that we should have won.”

Nate Leonard got the starting nod for Norfolk, while Medfield countered with Derek Latosek. Both pitchers got off to rocky starts, giving up first-inning runs to the team’s respective leadoff batters. 

Medfield’s Nick Santangelo singled to open the game and moved around to third via back-to-back walks issued by Leonard. He would score on sacrifice groundout by Will Cousins.

In the bottom of the opening stanza, Lagos drew a walk, moved around to third courtesy of two wild pitches and avoided the Cousins' tag to steal home.

According to Bill Lagos, Leonard had to be used Sunday for an inning against Westwood, despite going his regular start Tuesday.  The lefty went five innings while allowing all seven of Medfield’s runs on nine hits, four walks, two wild pitches and two errors on pick-off attempts. 

Through the first three innings, Medfield had four singles, resulting in only two runs. The visitors, though, were able to lash out three hits apiece in Leonard's final two innings and score five runs.

Medfield got RBIs off the bats of Santangelo and Cousins in the fourth and Brain McCloud, Santangelo and James Sullivan in the fifth.

Norfolk scored two in the third and two in the fifth. Both times the RBIs came off the bats of Matt Glass and James Wallace. Glass had an infield hit in the third and blasted a triple in the fifth, while Wallace launched a shot deep to center and then grounded out to the shortstop.

In addition to using his bat, Wallace contributed with his arm, tossing the final two innings of the contest. It was the first time in over a year that the King Philip catcher had taken the mound.

Medfield is back on the field today, traveling to Canton for a 5:45 p.m. game. Post 110 improves to 7-4 in the District 6 Standings. Norfolk is right back in action today as well when the team travels to meet a 5-3 Franklin team.