In a home-and-home series with Cohasset, the Stoughton Legion Post 89 baseball team won at Cohasset 10-8 this past Monday and tied 2-2 here in Stoughton on Tuesday.
Stoughton is now 4-3-1 on the season.
The rest of the week's games were rained out. Stoughton is scheduled to host Hyde Park in a doubleheader Sunday afternoon.
Take a look at photos from team in action in the media gallery of this article.
The following was submitted to Stoughton Patch:
Stoughton Outlasts Cohasset, 10-8
Stoughton Post 89 won their third game in a row on Monday, outlasting Cohasset 10-8 in the sweltering heat.
Pat Raeke got his first Legion start on the mound and pitched well for the Post 89'ers.
Tied at 1-1 after three, Stoughton erupted for 8 runs to take a 10-1 lead.
In that 4th inning, the first two Stoughton batters worked walks to put runners on first and second with no outs. Jamie Connors followed with a textbook sacrifice bunt and catcher Kyle Phillips followed with a long sacrifice fly to give Stoughton a 2-1 lead.
But the 89'ers weren't done, consecutive singles by Will McGrath, Tyler Alford-Getchell and Kaleb Ballou sandwiched around walks to Pat Jackman and Matt Provost, accounted for 3 more runs and loaded the bases for Jovani Pires.
Pires promptly blasted a long triple to center field to clear the bases, then rode home on a wild pitch to give Stoughton the 10-1 lead.
Cohasset scratched out 3 runs against Raeke, who was throwing well before tiring a bit in the 90 degree heat.
"Pat pitched extremely well. We made four errors behind him that forced him to throw a lot of extra pitches otherwise there is no doubt he would have pitched much deeper into the game for us," explained Coach Kevin McCormick. "But for his first start, he was really impressive and earned himself some quality innings in the future."
With Stoughton's bullpen stretched thin during the last week, Cohasset took advantage and put a 4 spot on the board in the 6th inning to cut the lead to 10-8.
With one out and with the tying run at the plate, Stoughton called on shortstop Pat Jackman to try to extinguish the rally. And Jackman didn't disappoint as he induced a soft come backer to the mound for the second out, then struck out the next batter looking to end the threat.
Cohasset did managea leadoff walk off of Jackman in the bottom of the 7th inning, but with one out and Will McGrath now behind the plate, McGrath gunned down the Cohasset runner trying to swipe second base. After a 2 out double, Jackman ended any Cohasset hope with his third strikeout. Jackman recorded 3 strikeouts in 1 and 2/3 innings to earn the save.
"Big time performance from Pat [Raeke] and Pat [Jackman] tonight!" stated Manager Jim Derochea. "But you can't overlook that our big rally was ignited by a perfect sacrifice bunt by Connors to get 2 men in scoring position and a sacrifice fly by Phillips to get the ball rolling for us."
Stoughton, Cohasset Tie
In the second half of a home and home series, Stoughton Post 89 and Cohasset Post 118 tied 2-2 at Stoughton High on Tuesday night.
Post 89 broke out on top 2-0 in the first inning as Pat Jackman walked and Mike Gallagher singled to left to begin the inning. After a double steal moved them up to second and third, Kaleb Ballou brought in Jackman with a sacrifice fly and Gallagher then rode home on a Jovani Pires single to up the lead to 2-0.
Cohasset inched back into the game in the top of the second inning off Stoughton starter, Will McGrath, plating an unearned run to cut the lead to 2-1, then tied it in the 4th inning on a triple and a wild pitch.
That would be all the scoring for the night as time and time again Post 89 put runners in scoring position, only to be stifled by Cohasset's defense.
Stoughton had men on base in 8 of the 9 innings, managing 11 hits along the way, but could only push across 2 runs against a tough Cohasset left-handed pitcher.
"We had plenty of opportunities but their pitcher had a nice curve going tonight and he seemed to be able to pop us up in key situations when he needed an out," said Manager Jim Derochea. "All in all we swung the bats well, we just didn't come up with that one big hit or even sacrifice fly when we needed it tonight."
For Post 89, Will McGrath and Mike Gallagher pitched brilliantly, combining to hold Cohasset to 4 hits over 9 innings.
The key play of the game came in the top of the ninth inning after a Cohasset walk with one out. Stoughton catcher Kyle Phillips, who had caught the previous 8 innings, had to be replaced after falling victim to the heat and allowing consecutive passed balls.
Brian Crimmins came in and he was tested on the very next pitch. With the infield in, the Cohasset batter hit a two-hopper to shortstop as the runner broke for home. The throw from shortstop was in the dirt, but Crimmins scooped it out, set himself and applied the tag as he deftly blocked the plate to preserve the tie.
"That was a big time play by Brian [Crimmins] in that last inning. He is fundamentally sound behind the plate and he made a superb play to keep the game tied," praised Derochea.
Stoughton did put two runners on with one out in the bottom half of the inning, but could not plate the run as the game was called due to darkness.
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