SAA EDCO Intermediate

July 15 – Norwood 4 - Springfield Blue 1

In a playoff game somewhat reminiscent of the Phillies-Rays World Series Game 5, Blue started a game against Norwood on Monday night and it didn’t finish until Thursday evening. Unfortunately, there wasn’t the same happy ending for the local guys as they fell to Norwood by a score of 4-1 and were eliminated from the EDCO Intermediate semi-final playoff round. Springfield jumped out to a 1 run lead in the top of the first when lead off man Dan Hee blasted a triple over the center fielders head. Dan then scored when the cutoff man mishandled the throw into 3rd. Norwood answered with 3 runs in the bottom of the 1st and that would be the end of the scoring until Norwood planted a final run in the 6th inning on Thursday night. Play was halted due to lightning just as Springfield was about to bat in the top of the 3rd and then the skies finally opened up and the game was suspended. Tim Finnegan pitched his heart out allowing just 2 earned runs on 4 hits but the offense was silent as Springfield only had 6 base runners on 3 hits in the game. The only other guys in the hit column for Springfield were Eric Gibbs and Pete Sabato as the final 5 innings took under an hour to play. While there was a lack of offensive production, it wasn’t due to trying hard. The entire team played with great attitude, ran hard on everything, and proved they know how to play the game the right way. Defensive highlights included a Pete Sabato putout of an attempted steal of home on a botched suicide squeeze in the 1st inning and an Eric Gibbs who gun down of a guy at 2nd attempting to steal in the 3rd inning. Finnegan had another masterful pick-off of a runner off 1st and Joe Sheeran turned an unassisted 4-3 double play when he charged hard on a grounder, got the tag out. and fired to Kyle Pappa at 1st. Despite the disappointment of not advancing to the finals, Blue can feel good about their season and look forward to next year when they will return with the majority of their players to have another crack at it.

July 13 – Norwood 5 - Springfield Blue 2
Rather then risking more delays due to rain, Springfield – Norwood elected to play game 2 of their best of 3 series on Tuesday night at Crowell Park and leave Game 1 in a suspended state to be completed later in the week. The grounds crew had their hands full but got North Ave ready to play by 6:00 PM. Norwood jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the 2^nd and it would prove to be all they needed as they defeated Springfield 5-2 to take the series lead. Springfield put 2 runs on the board in the bottom of 2^nd when Tim Finnegan smacked a 1 out single followed by Jeff Peranteau who was safe on error on a ball he hit to third. Matt Fuchsel, 2 for 2 in the game, came up big with a 2 out single which scored Finn. Fuch aggressively advanced to second when the throw from the outfield wasn’t cut off and was just safe on a throw back from the catcher. Peranteau was heads up and seeing his opportunity, darted home on the play to steal a second run. Blue’s only other hit was off the bat of Kyle Pappa in the 5^th inning. Chris Desiderio toed the rubber for Blue and he was outstanding. Desi threw 7 strong and said “I’ll throw the 8^th if we tie it”. Chris scattered 8 hits with 5 K’s and only allowed 1 earned run. Defensive miscues hurt Blue along with some base running mistakes sealed their fate.