Babe Ruth: Medfield Senior Team Beats Milford in World Series Opener

Timely hitting coupled with the pitching of Joe Shebertes propelled Medfield to a 5-1 victory over Milford in Game 1 of the Central Massachusetts Senior Babe Ruth World Series Wednesday to put the local nine on the brink of its first championship.

“This is what it’s all about,” said Medfield head coach Kevin Glasheen. “They performed very well and I was happy for them. We’re a little tired but they’re resilient and now they can taste it. Last year we got close and blew it in the seventh inning and this year it’s a little different team, surprisingly. They’re young and they’re all coachable.”

Game 1 was expected to pick up in the bottom of the first inning after Tuesday’s thunderstorm suspended play to Wednesday, but league rules indicate one full inning must be played for the game to be suspended rather than postponed. Wednesday’s game was a fresh start for both teams.

That was good news for Milford hitters and bad news for Medfield pitcher Joe Shebertes, who made quick work of Milford’s top third of the order Tuesday, striking out two in the top of the first inning. On Wednesday, the big lefty was less fortunate in the first frame.

Milford was more patient with Shebertes to begin the game and the team’s plate discipline resulted in a first inning run. Shebertes allowed a walk and a hit to Milford’s first two hitters and an error on a pick-off attempt scored the runner from third to give Milford the early 1-0 lead.

But Medfield’s bats responded with five runs in the first two innings off Milford starter Dave Rice and that was all the offense Shebertes needed to secure the 5-1 victory and give Medfield the series lead.

“[Shebertes is] a gamer, he’s a great kid,” said Glasheen. “Real coachable and he beat a good team. He [throws] a very heavy ball and it kind of explodes at the bat.”

In the bottom of the first, Medfield’s first two batters reached base for John Buchanan, who singled in the runners from second and third to push Medfield ahead 2-1.

“That’s Buchanan all year long, I call him silk,” Glasheen said. “You see him play first base, he’s smooth as silk and he’s a great ball player.”

In the next inning, Matt Casieri began the two-out rally with a single past third base and stole second and third to get 90-feet from the plate for Corey Chung, who singled in the hole between third and short to drive in the run and extend Medfield’s lead, 3-1.

Medfield continued to be aggressive on the base paths as Chung stole second to get into scoring position for Gil Adams, who doubled to plate Chung after Milford’s catcher could not control the throw home. Adams made it to third on the play.

Medfield’s next batter, Pat Lenihan, continued the hit parade with a single between third and short to score Adams and give Medfield the 5-1 lead.

“Pat Lenihan is another clutch hitter for us and  [has been] all year long and he’s a big game player,” Glasheen said. “We are very aggressive [on the bases], I make these kids run. We put the pressure on the defense and we see what happens. We got up 5-1 and gave Joey the ball and [said] ‘Joey just go out and get outs’ and that’s what he did.”

Both teams had opportunities to score runs but Rice and Shebertes each worked out of jams. After Medfield could not capitalize on a bases loaded opportunity and no outs in the bottom of third inning, Milford squandered its own bases loaded chance in the top of the fourth. Shebertes surrendered a lead off double to Eddie Moran before getting Chris Trafecante to fly out to left field and Ryan Simoneau to strike out before running into a two-out jam. Cam Cossette singled and Mike Tracy walked to load the bases for Milford before Shebertes buckled down and forced Eric Fernandes to pop out to right field.

“[Milford’s pitcher Rice] settled down and I think he shut us down from the third inning on,” said Glasheen. “We didn’t get anything after the third inning and after the bases loaded and nobody out that we didn’t score, that would have broken the game open. Then they come back and don’t score on their bases loaded.”

From there, Shebertes cruised, allowing just two base runners over the final three innings and earning the complete game victory on 95 pitches.

“We played pretty good defense and Joey pitched another good game for us,” said Glasheen.

Medfield holds a 1-0 series lead against a Milford team that swept the local nine, 2-0 in last year’s World Series. While this year has already seen an improvement in results, Glasheen doesn’t expect Milford to go away.

“This is usually what happens, we get up by a couple of runs and then we coast and you can’t do that against Milford, they’ll come back and they’re a good team,” Glasheen said. “Milford is always tough in Milford and we got to go out there and play solid defense because now you’re playing on grass so it will be a little bit of a different game for us but we will be alright.”

Glasheen said he expects his team to be ready to go Thursday and will likely have Matt Casieri on the mound, opting to go with another lefty.

“[Casieri] pitched pretty well for us this year and he’ll be ready,” Glasheen said.

Medfield will have a chance to win its first ever World Series title when it takes the field Thursday for Game 2 of the Central Massachusetts Senior Babe Ruth World Series at  in Milford at 7 p.m.

“This is what it’s about, bringing baseball to Medfield,” said Glasheen. “Hopefully we can start [that tradition] with a trophy and a World Series win but we’ll see what happens.”