American Legion: Medfield Falls To District 6 Leader Walpole In 7 Innings

Not much went the way of the Medfield American Legion baseball team in a 13-4, seven-inning loss to Walpole Tuesday at Curt Schilling Field in Medfield.

Medfield head coach James Lagos described Tuesday's game as "cruel" to his club as Post 110 could not catch a break against District 6 leader Walpole.

“I was telling these guys earlier how baseball is such a cruel, cruel game,” Lagos said. “Our third baseman T.J. Valente hit the snot out of the ball but he hit it right at the guy every single time, great play here, great play there. Baseball is a cruel sport.”

While Medfield wasn’t finding much fortune on the diamond, Walpole was benefiting from the ball rolling in its favor.

Walpole’s good fortune resulted in two runs in the first inning off Medfield starter Vin Palumbo, who struggled with control throughout most of his outing.

Walpole’s Cameron Hanley (2-for-4, 2 RBI, run) singled off the first base bag and stole second to get into scoring position. Craig Hanley then beat out a weakly hit ball to third base to put runners on first and third with one out. A single over Brian McCloud’s head at shortstop plated Cameron Hanley for a 1-0 lead and another Walpole single put Medfield in an early 2-0 hole.

Walpole capitalized on Medfield’s misfortune again in the third inning, plating two more runs to build a 4-0 lead. Palumbo recorded two outs between a Craig Hanley double but an infield popup to second base fell in front of Jim Magrath after he lost it in the sun, allowing Walpole to score its third run of the game and give them a chance for more, which they took advantage of. Palumbo allowed two more singles after the popup to second base and Walpole added another run before the Medfield High alumn ended the damage with a strikeout.

“Baseball is just a cruel sport,” Lagos said.

Despite the game’s cruelty, Medfield responded with four runs in the bottom of the inning to tie Walpole.

“We’ve done a pretty good job [showing resiliency],” Lagos said. “We’ve only had one losing streak this year and yes it was four games but that was our losing streak so we seem to strap ‘em on and go right back to it when we need to, I love these guys.”

Medfield’s Nick Santangelo and James Sullivan singled and Magrath atoned for the ball he lost in the sun with a two-run double to deep right-center field to cut the deficit in half. Medfield’s Will Cousins then double to right field to score Magrath. Cousins stole third and eventually scored on a passed ball to tie the game.

Walpole quickly regained momentum by taking the lead in the fourth inning with a 3-run frame, something Lagos had sensed the way the game was going.

“Even when we pulled back to tie it up it was still on the cusp of we were one miscue away or one big inning away, we know we can’t give extra outs,” Lagos said.

Walpole recorded two singles that managed to squeak by Medfield’s well-positioned infielders and Craig Hanley continued his strong day at the plate with a two-run double to center to give his team a 6-4 lead. Another single added to the lead, 7-4 and just like that Walpole was in control once again and the book was closed on Palumbo, who gave up seven runs (five earned) on 13 hits while striking out five.

“Vinny struggled with control,” Lagos said. “We talked about pinpoint accuracy would be [key to Palumbo's success]. I went with [the] decision to pitch Vinny and give Vinny the opportunity to do what Vinny does best and he just wasn’t himself tonight … 68 pitches through four innings, that’s tough for a starter. Some of those were balls that should have been caught and some of those were balls that should not have gone through but that’s baseball and they took good swings.”

Palumbo was replaced by Derek Bauer, who recorded a groundout and strikeout in between a walk to get out of the inning. Medfield’s hitters hit the ball hard but hit the ball right at Walpole fielders. When Medfield did get runners on base the team could not string together enough hits to move the runners around to score.

Walpole had one more big inning left before the game was called after seven innings due to darkness, plating six runs in the top of the sixth inning and adding another in the top of the seventh for the 13-4 victory.

“That’s a fantastic ball club,” Lagos said. “I told these guys, I said ‘look it, whether you think they are beatable or not, which they are, they are just a good ball club.’ Tough game to lose because we said we owed them. We owed Walpole. They beat us last year by one run at Walpole and then came here and annihilated us. They beat us by two runs [this year in Walpole] so we owed them and we just didn’t make good on our deal.”

Next up for third-place Medfield is second-place Norwood on Thursday at Memorial School field in Medfield at 5:45 p.m.. Lagos expects his team to put this loss behind them quickly and refocus on the goal at hand – qualify for the postseason.

“Hopefully we can get it all out of our system for mid-July,” Lagos said. “I like that we are in that position. I told these guys we’re not in the playoffs yet, we still got to win one more game for our place in the playoffs. One of three ain’t bad, certainly three out of three is better and that’s what we are going for. Sky’s always the limit for us.”

Sam Jordan will be on the mound for Medfield Thursday and Mike Keleher Friday against Foxborough and Derek Latosek on Saturday against Canton.

“The four-man rotation is pretty fantastic,” Lagos said. “We hit the ball well so we’ll hope for the best and we got to press the issue here.”

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