Hold off Brewers comeback, win 7-6
THE EXPOS were crowned the Twi League champs for the second straight year. In the front row (left to right) are Dave McDonald, Steve Boghos and Jason Brooks. In the back row (left to right) are Steve Grasso, Tom Kelleher, Andrew Worden, Danny O’Brien, Dennis Diccio, Sean McDonald, John Grossi and Mike Cannata. Missing from the photo are Nick Roberto, Johnathan Richards, Chris McNall and Jon Jepson.
Published in the August 14, 2015 edition
By DAN BYRNE
WAKEFIELD — The Expos took a 2-1 series lead over the Brewers into Game 4 of the best-of-five Twi League final on Thursday evening at Moulton Field.
The Expos grabbed a win in Game 1 by an 8-4 margin but the Brewers put up seven runs in game two to even the series at 1-1. In Game 3 the Expos prevailed with a 4-1 victory to set up a potential series clinching game 4 on Thursday.
Last night, the Expos rode some fine pitching and one inning of offensive explosiveness while fending off a late Brewers comeback as they prevailed by a 7-6 score to clinch the 2015 Twi League title.
The Brewers were the home team Thursday, so starting pitcher Brian Millea took the hill first. He struck out the first man he faced looking, but allowed a one-out double to Steve Boghos. Millea got the next batter to fly out to center, making it two outs in the inning. The next batter, Tom Kelleher singled home Boghos to put the Expos on top 1-0. Millea got the final out on another called third strike but the Expos had the lead.
The Brewers’ turn to hit started with two quick outs as Expos starter Sean McDonald started out well. He ran into some trouble with two outs in the inning as he walked the next batter, Darren Bisso, and allowed a single to Myke Fortier. Brian DiRuzza walked to load the bases for Mike Greer whose single knocked in one.
However the inning came to a controversial end when Fortier came around from second. The relay throw arrived just as Fortier went into his slide but the throw was up the first base line. Catcher Kelleher’s sweeping tag appeared to just get Fortier but the ball rolled out seconds later. Seeing the ball out of the glove, Fortier was ruled safe initially by the home plate umpire. However, the base umpire and the home plate umpire conferred and afterward Fortier was ruled out, erasing the run and ending the inning with the score 1-1.
Millea settled in for the second through fourth innings as the Expos managed only two hits and no runs.
McDonald was equally effective on the mound for the Expos as the Brewers could only muster two hits and no runs from the second through the fifth innings.
Things heated up again in the Expos half of the fifth as Millea walked the leadoff man Dennis Diccio, then Andrew Worden lined a ball into the left-center field gap. Diccio went first to third, but center fielder Greer made a hustle play to cut the ball off in the gap and hold Worden to a single. Jason Brooks then grounded to third but the Brewers couldn’t get an out and Diccio scored. John Grossi then walked with the bases loaded. Boghos hit into a fielder’s choice for the first out but the next batter Dave McDonald cleared the bases with a three-run triple. Kelleher followed with a base hit to bring McDonald home and Mike Cannata singled to move Kelleher up to second. Millea got the next batter to hit into a fielder’s choice for the inning’s second out but Diccio came up again and knocked an RBI single to make the score 7-1.
Millea got Worden to ground out to third to end the half inning but the damage had been done.
The Brewers then went down in order in their half of the fifth but Millea came back out and got three quick outs in the top of the sixth, allowing no runs on one hit and striking out one.
The Brewers had six outs to comeback and fight for their Twi-League lives as they came to bat in the bottom of the sixth. What came next was an exciting rally that saw the Brewers plate five runs on three hits to cut the lead to 7-6.
Bisso started things off with a base hit and then Fortier was hit by a pitch. DiRuzza walked to load the bases but Greer hit into a 6-4-3 double play. One run came home to make it 7-2 but the Expos were glad to trade a run for two outs.
McDonald ran into some problems with two down as he walked the next two batters to load the bases then he hit Joe Greer with a pitch to bring another run in and keep the bases loaded. Matt Fiore reached on an error to plate another run and make it 7-4. Andrew Patti had a two-run single to make it 7-6, Expos.
The next batter hit a fly ball to right field to end the inning, stopping the comeback just shy of tying the game.
The Expos and Brewers both failed to score in the seventh inning and the game ended with a 7-6 final as the Expos were crowned the 2015 Twi League champs with a 3-1 series win.
