Sports

UPDATED: Medfield Shocks Norton in 2-1 Walk-Off Victory in State Tournament

Medfield senior Pat Lenihan's two-run single in the bottom of the seventh beats Norton in MIAA Division 3 South Sectional State Tournament.

Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh inning and its season on the line, Medfield rallied for two runs to walk off with a 2-1 victory over defending state champion Norton in the MIAA Division 3 South Sectional State Tournament Saturday.

“[We have] a flare for the dramatic,” said Medfield head coach Matt Marenghi. “We’ve won all the close ball games this year and I’m just glad we kept doing it. Speaks to the character of this team.”

Warriors’ outfielder Pat Lenihan delivered the big hit off Norton ace, A.J. Bashaw, with runners on second and third and one out, pushing a fly ball down the left field line that found fair territory to score both runners.

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“Luckily we got a kid up there who just wanted it,” Marenghi said. “I’m just glad [Lenihan] wanted it that bad. It’s not like A.J. [Bashaw] made a bad pitch, another second or two and that’s a foul ball and it could have ended a little differently. Frankly, I’m glad he missed the safety squeeze on the 0-1 pitch. It worked out for the best.”

Will Cousins and TJ Valente drew back-to-back walks to open the bottom of the seventh inning and Beau Nixon laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners to second and third, giving Lenihan an opportunity to win the game – he did and the celebration was on.

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“We never lost sight of the fact that we could win that game,” Marenghi said. “There are times when a team is beating you that you can get discouraged and start thinking pessimistically and given the fact that their pitcher, [Rob] Cormier, pitched so well and then they bring in the league pitcher of the year [Bashaw], I think that speaks to the character of my team.”

Norton jumped on the board in the first at-bat of the game. Lead-off hitter, Phil Rizzo, took Medfield starter Mike Keleher deep and gone, over the right field fence for a 1-0 advantage. Cormier and Bashaw made that lead hold for six innings before Lenihan’s heroics.

Cormier pitched the first 4.1 innings, striking out five on three hits and hitting one batter. Bashaw took over with one out in the fifth inning and went the rest of the way, striking out four, walking two and allowing just one hit – but it was Lenihan’s two-run single.

“[Rob] Cormier threw well,” Marenghi said. “He was throwing breaking balls behind in the count, having us off-balance and that’s what they needed. I knew they had A.J. [Bashaw] in their back pocket and I had no reason to believe we would ever hit the ball with the gas [Bashaw] was throwing.”

Norton assistant head coach Domenic Eno said everything fell into place for his team to win, they just couldn’t get the key hit.

“I was hoping Rob got up to five [innings] and A.J. come in and it happened, so I was pumped about that, I didn’t sleep the night before,” Eno said. “I don’t know what else, we did what we had to do and we got A.J. in there. Everything we did was right … We just didn’t get any big hits.”

Keleher pitched a complete game, allowing the lead-off home run to Rizzo before shutting Norton out over the final six innings. He struck out seven and allowed just four hits.

“We knew it was going to be a close game, one way or another,” Marenghi said. “I’m glad I had Mike on the hill. Lead-off hitter hit a home run and that is going to shake a kid unlike Mike and I’m glad Mike is like Mike. It was one pitch. Mike was throwing a little harder [Saturday]. Mike reached down deeper. His breaking ball is always money. He’s got a great breaking ball but he really reached down and reared back for a couple fastballs.”

Eno gave credit where credit was due to Keleher and the rest of the Medfield club.

“They’re a great team,” he said. “They know that, we know that and they know they got six great hitters and that Keleher kid is a really damn good baseball player. They’re well coached.”

Medfield (17-4), the bracket’s third seed, will host sixth seed Apponequet Monday, June 4 at Curt Schilling Field at 4 p.m. Marenghi said he will take the dramatic win but wants to see more from his team’s offense.

“As far as I’m concerned, we haven’t been playing all that well lately,” he said. “We played well that last inning but we got to get going as soon as we can to hopefully build off that last inning so I’d play right now if we could. We’ll take Monday and go get them.”

For Medfield to be successful moving forward in the tournament, it will rely on what got it to this point of the season and what got it a 2-1 victory over the defending state champions on Saturday.

“Our pitching and defense, I know it is kind of cliché but it’s going to get us through and it did it [Saturday],” said Marenghi.


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