Baacke, Folan lead way as Medfield rolls past Braintree

After suffering a loss at the hands of Braintree early in the regular season, Medfield returned the favor when it mattered most.

Drew Baacke threw five innings of one-hit ball, while Dennis Folan launched a grand slam as the No. 3 River Rats defeated second-seeded Braintree, 13-0, in five innings in the opening round of the Massachusetts Independent Baseball League’s Final Four at Adams Field.

Medfield advances to play the winner of No. 1 Ashland and No. 4 Quincy on Wednesday at 8 p.m. Braintree falls into the one-loss portion of the bracket.

“Drew (Baacke) usually puts the whole team on the back when he pitches,” Medfield coach Rob Mintz said. “Today, it was sort of the reverse. The team gave him a cushion and he went with it making very good pitches throughout.”

Baacke had his full repertoire of pitches throughout, establishing his fastball command early on before putting Braintree hitters away with his breaking ball. Over his five-inning shutout performance, Baacke threw 64 pitches, allowed just three baserunners and retired the last nine hitters he faced.

“This time for me the biggest thing was I left my off-speed pitches down in the zone,” Baacke said. “I didn’t hang my curveball or slider and it got (Braintree) to chase more out of the strike zone.”

Medfield got on the scoreboard in the top of the first as Jack Goodman laced a two-run single to left-center field to give the River Rats a 2-0 lead. Braintree had a chance to respond in the bottom of the first behind a base hit and a walk, but Baacke induced a ground ball to second to retire the side.

“We do a pretty good job of scoring early,” Mintz said. “Our guys played relaxed and just put the bat to the ball.”

The River Rats expanded on their lead in the third. Three walks loaded the bases before No. 8 hitter Ryan Murphy smacked a two-run single to push the lead to 4-0. Two batters later, Nick Sheehan added an RBI hit of his own to stretch the lead up to 5-0.

With Baacke firmly in control on the mound, the River Rats firmly put the game out of reach in the top half of the fifth. The first eight batters of the inning reached base and scored, highlighted by Folan’s grand slam well over the fence in right, to extend the River Rats lead to 13-0 and end the game after five innings.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2PIn5r8