Canton A's bow out of Stan Musial tournament
By Mike Berger
Citizen Staff
The Canton
Athletics of the Cranberry League played well, but not well
enough to advance, as the A’s were eliminated in the Stan Musial
Tournament after three hard-fought games last weekend.
The A’s were
one of five teams in the league to make the postseason
tournament, which each year pits the best teams in the Cranberry
League against the best regional teams in Massachusetts and
Rhode Island in a double elimination format.
Despite
getting great pitching from Canton’s Greg Lyons and Chris Smith,
Sharon’s Andy Poliferno, and Brian Bodjiak, the A’s suffered
from defensive lapses and lacked timely hitting, as they fell to
Swampscott 3-2 and Claremark, a team from Dean College in
Franklin, 4-2. Their one victory was a 3-2 come-from-behind
effort against Weymouth.
The A’s
ended the season at 19-13-1, one of the best records they have
ever compiled, according to head coach Cab Devoll. The team also
sent four players to the Cranberry League all-star team (Lyons,
Joe Belmosto, Steve Delanian, and Mark Trachtenberg) and Lyons
was voted one of the league’s five best pitchers.
All of the
Canton players on the team, including Lyons, Smith, Bill Murray
and Billy Curry, played well this season and are expected to
play again next season.
The
highlight of the weekend for Canton came on Saturday versus
Weymouth. Lyons had been locked in a pitchers duel until the
fifth inning, when the A’s Chris Fagen tried mightily to snag a
fly ball in right field, which Canton claimed fell foul but the
umpire ruled a fair ball and a homerun. Lyons was then thrown
out of the game for protesting the call, and Poliferno came in
for the remainder of the game and shut down the Weymouth
hitters. In the seventh inning, the A’s were down to their final
at-bat before loading the bases and then scoring the winning run
on a grounder to shortstop by Fagen.
In the first
game of the winners bracket, Canton took on a tough Swampscott
team (20-2) and had a 1-0 lead after four innings behind the
strong arm of Bodjiak, who had racked up five strikeouts, and a
key RBI single by Belmosto. But momentum swung the other way in
the fifth after a popup around the pitcher’s mound confused
three players and the Swampscott batter ended up reaching first
base. Swampscott then rallied for two runs, and added a third
run in the sixth on a walk, a passed ball and an error.
Canton came
back in the top of the seventh with an RBI double by Fagen, but
it wasn’t enough as Swampscott continued on in the winners
bracket and Canton was sent to the loser’s bracket for the
second game of the tournament.
In the 4-2
loss on Sunday, Smith pitched well, but fell victim to four
unearned runs as he limited Claremark to five hits and struck
out seven batters. Meanwhile, the A’s loaded the bases with no
outs but could only score one run, and then had two runners on
with one out but could not push across any runs.
“We had
great pitching all season, especially this weekend,” Devoll
said. “If we had just a little more hitting and clutch hitting,
we would still be playing. Our pitching was really great.”
Devoll said
he expects most of his players will return next season and is
optimistic that the A’s will be an exciting, playoff team next
season.
July 31, 2008
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