Lou Tompkins All Star Baseball entry plays to 7-7 tie in opener
Published in the June 18, 2015 edition
BEN KELLEY was the starting pitcher for the Wakefield Townies B division team of the Lou Tompkins All Star Baseball League last night at Sullivan. The Townies and Winchester played to a 7-7 tie in the season opener for Wakefield. (Donna Larsson Photo)
By DAN BYRNE
WAKEFIELD — Wakefield’s Lou Tompkins Townies B division team played last night at Sullivan Park where it hosted Winchester in a game that ended in a 7-7 tie after seven innings.
It was the Townies first game of the summer under manager Bill DeLeary, as he led his group of 13- and 14-year-old players.
“We have a young team,” DeLeary said following the game. “We’ve got a lot of 13 year olds on the team this year.”
With a 16 player roster, the Townies are made up of eight 13’s and eight 14 year olds.
Summertime can be a busy time for a young baseball player and most of the kids on this team can be found playing on additional teams this summer as well.
“We pitched five kids today due to everyone’s AAU and different town schedules,” DeLeary said after the first game.
Ben Kelley started on the hill for the Warriors going the first couple of innings. He allowed a run in the top half of the first that saw Winchester go ahead 1-0 early on.
The Townies came back with three runs in their half of the first inning. After a strikeout led off the inning, Shamus Foley came through with a base hit down the left field line. Three consecutive walks followed and the score was tied at 1-1.
Josiah Brown came up after another base on balls and laced a bases loaded RBI single to make the score 3-0.
Kelley allowed another run in the second inning after back to back walks to start the inning.
Nick Lamberti reached on an error to lead off the Wakefield second and eventually scored on a Jake Regan RBI single with two outs to give the Townies a 4-2 lead after the second inning.
Mike Lucey came in to pitch the third inning for Wakefield. He walked the first batter he faced but settled down and didn’t allow a run or a hit while striking out two and walking a pair in the frame.
Wakefield tacked on two more runs in its half of the third to extend its lead to 6-2. Kelley walked to start the inning, then Jimmy Crump singled him to third as the shortstop made an errant throw. Nick Lamberti walked to load the bases and the next batter Timmy Cogswell came through with a sacrifice fly to left field for the RBI. Paul Bentubo then grounded out to third base brining in a run.
Regan came in to pitch the fourth inning for Wakefield. The first batter reached on an error by the third baseman that allowed him to reach second. The following batter hit an RBI single to bring the run around but was thrown out heading to second base for the first out of the inning. Regan got the next batter to weakly ground to short and struck out the final batter to retire the side with the score now 6-3.
Wakefield threatened to score in the fourth but failed to do so as it loaded the bases with one out. A pair of one out walks led to Kelley coming up in a big spot. The big man looped a single into right but not into a place where the runner could try to score. A pop up and a ground out killed the Wakefield rally and the Townies headed to the fifth inning ahead 6-3.
Regan came through the visitor’s half of the fifth inning without any harm to the lead. He got the first batter to pop out, followed by a harmless walk, a grounder back to the pitcher that went to second to cut down the lead runner and a lazy fly ball to right ended the inning.
In its half of the fifth, the Townies went 1-2-3 and were back out in the field.
Chris Coombs came into pitch for Wakefield in the sixth. He was greeted with a leadoff double to left-center field, then he walked the next man he face to make it first and second with no outs. The runners moved up when a Coombs pitch went to the backstop to put the runners in scoring position. The next batter grounded back to the pitcher but heads up base running saw the runner sneak in from third. Coombs then surrendered another walk but got the last two batters to ground out to shortstop.
Coombs led off the Wakefield sixth with a single. A walk and later a Regan sac-fly made the score 7-4 Wakefield. But the threat was neutralized before the Townies tacked on any more runs.
With a 7-4 lead heading into the top of the seventh, Wakefield turned the ball over to Foley to shut the door. He was unable to do so.
Foley walked the leadoff man but got the next batter to ground out to second base and then struck out the following batter looking. With two outs the runner advanced to third base on defensive indifference, then scored on an RBI single to make it 7-5. A few more defensive indifference bases saw that runner move to third. A walk put another runner on who stole second moving the tying run to second base with two outs.
Foley got the next batter to hit a weak ground ball to second but the second baseman didn’t get his glove down and the ball rolled through his legs into right field. Two runs came home on the error tying the game at 7-7. The final batter grounded to third to end the inning.
Wakefield had one last chance to break the tie in the bottom of the seventh. It got the lead off man aboard with a walk but then went in order after that with a pop to left, a strike out and a fly out to center. The game ended in a 7-7 tie after seven innings.
Wakefield’s next scheduled game is this Saturday at Sullivan Park once again at 5 p.m. against the Winthrop Vikings, though Manager DeLeary mentioned the possibility of playing Friday to make up for Monday’s rain out. As of press time, Monday’s game hadn’t been rescheduled.
