Nat 12s pitcher throws no-hitter in 1-0 District 13 Tournament win
Published in the July 7, 2015 edition
By DAN MARGARITA
WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield National 11-12 year old Major Little League Baseball All-Star team hosted Lincoln-Sudbury last night in a District 13 Tournament game in Pool A and eked out a 1-0 win at Fernald Field.
The big story of the game was the pitching of Wakefield’s Jack Penney, who hurled a no-hitter, allowing just one base runner who reached via an error.
“Jack Penney was phenomenal. He worked the corners, (had a) great curveball and kept them off balance all night. What else can you say? The kid was fantastic,” praised Wakefield manager Brian Juneau.
Penney retired the first 11 batters he faced before Matt Ray grounded to third basemen Matt Juneau, who bobbled the ball and then threw wide of first base, putting Ray on second. Juneau was playing deep and whether or not he would have been able to get Ray at first is debatable but the bobble made the decision moot.
“That was close. I’m not an official scorer. He might have beaten it out, he might not have. Either way the score ends up the same and Jack worked his way out of trouble,” said manager Juneau.
Wakefield got its lone run in the bottom of the second inning. Matt Juneau led off with a walk and then, after two strikeouts, Juneau moved to second on a wild pitch. Brogan Chambers then reached on an error when shortstop Connor Peek booted the ball and threw wide of first baseman Ray. Juneau raced toward home and appeared to have been out on Ray’s throw home but catcher Sky Bordiuk dropped the ball making Juneau safe on the play to give Wakefield a 1-0 lead.
“I know we’ve been struggling to score runs and I saw an opportunity with the ball going past first base to send the runner from third and we caught a break, fortunately,” said the elder Juneau.
After Ray had reached via the error, Penney resumed mowing down the Lincoln-Sudbury batters, retiring the next seven batters to finish the game.
“We haven’t been swinging the bats well this all-star season but fortunately we were able to scratch one across and it just happened to be enough,” said manager Juneau.
The Nationals are 2-1 in Pool A play. Wakefield defeated Weston, 8-3, in the District 13 Tournament opener on Tuesday, June 29 at Bouchard Field in Weston. The Nats then lost a 14-4 game against Lexington on Wednesday, July 1 at Center 4 Field in Lexington.
Wakefield’s remaining pool play games are against Acton-Boxboro on Thursday night at 5:45 p.m. at Fernald Field and then on Sunday at 5 p.m. against Assabet Valley at the Alumni Complex in Maynard.
