Medfield Baseball Season Ends with Eighth Inning Loss

Medfield, a team that has been resilient all season, was one out from advancing to the MIAA Division 3 South Sectional semi-finals but was outdone by an equally resilient Apponequet team in a 7-6 loss in eight innings. 

"It was going to take a game like that to knock us out," said Medfield head coach Matt Marenghi. "We could have easily been on the other side of that just based on how we battled in that game and they just caught one more break than we did."

Leading 3-0 in the sixth inning, Medfield discovered just how resilient Apponequet is. 

The Lakers plated four runs in the top of the sixth to take its first lead of the game after starting pitcher Joe Shebertes silenced their bats for the first innings. Steve Gauthier led off the frame with a single off Shebertes and Zach Bernard followed with a double to put runners on second and third. Matt Schell then grounded out to first base, scoring the runner from third to get the Lakers on the board, 3-1.

Chris Travers then singled to left field to score the runner from third. Travers advanced to second on a passed ball and Shebertes was lifted by Marenghi for Steven Russell. Dan DePippo greeted Russell into the game with a single to left field to score Travers and tie the game at three. Nate Michael followed with a single to right field that plated DePippo from second base to give the Lakers a 4-3 lead. 

Medfield countered with its own resiliency, showing the type of character this group of 21 ball players have exhibited throughout a TVL championship season. 

The Warriors answered with three runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 6-4 lead heading into the seventh – in position to advance to the MIAA Division 3 South Sectional quarterfinals. 

Gil Adams led off the bottom of the sixth with a walk and Brian McCloud laid down a sacrifice bunt that turned into both runners being safe after Apponequet failed to throw out Adams at second base. Jim Magrath followed with a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners into scoring position and a passed ball scored Adams to tie the game at four. Mike Keleher followed with a single to left to give MHS a 5-4 lead and Will Cousins added insurance – at the time – with an RBI single to center. 

Apponequet met resiliency with more resiliency as the Lakers again found a way to come back from a deficit, this time with its season on the line, to plate two runs and tie the game. 

Myles Greene started the inning with a single to right field off Russell. Josh Cabucio followed with a groundball to second base, a difficult play for Magrath to get to, and could not record an out. A ball in the dirt advanced both runners into scoring position and a Gauthier groundball to short scored the runner from third to pull within a run, 6-5. After Russell struck out Craig Soares for the second out of the inning, Matt Schell singled to center to score Cabucio and tie the score at six. 

After a scoreless half inning by Medfield, Apponequet kept its resiliency into the top of the eighth plating the eventual game-winning run thanks to a pair of doubles by Travers and Nate Michael off Warriors' pitcher Corey Chung. 

Magrath led the bottom of the eighth off with a single but Medfield could not string together the hits needed to move him around and its season came to an end. 

"There’s nothing to be ashamed of, we just got beat by a pretty good team," Marenghi said. "We just couldn't seal the deal."

Medfield was in control through the first five innings as Shebertes kept the Lakers' batters off-balanced and the Warriors' offense manufactured two runs in the third and one in the fifth to build a 3-0 lead.

"All in all, I couldn’t have asked for more from [Shebertes]," Marenghi said. "He shut them down for five innings. Clearly that’s a team that can put some runs on the board and can hit so that’s a testament to how well he pitched since the first few innings."

Marenghi said while the season ended with a difficult loss, it was a successful year and one that he was proud to be apart of.

"It’s the end of the season, I let [the players] know that in all my years of coaching I never had such a team sort of be carried by seniors the way this group was and as a coach and the head of this program, I couldn’t be prouder of the footprint that they left and I didn’t want them to forget that," he said. "I don’t want these other guys, the younger guys, to forget that either because it would be a discredit to the tremendous job [the seniors and the team] did this season and they did a tremendous job. I couldn’t be happier with the leadership on this team and hopefully that’s going to set a precedent for Medfield baseball for awhile."

Notes: Keleher singled to left and advanced to second base on a passed ball to start the bottom of the third. TJ Valente singled to center to score Keleher. Valente advanced to second base on passed ball and scored on Beau Nixon’s single to left field. In the bottom of the fifth, Cousins led-off with a walk and Nixon recorded his second RBI of the game, doubling to left to score Cousins from second base.