NEFL surrenders lead late to SK, bows out of legion playoffs

Jacob Marrocco
Posted 8/5/15

Offense had been an issue for New England Frozen Lemonade - Shields Post 43 in its last couple of close wins, but it looked like it may save it on Friday night.

NEFL had jumped out in front, 6-2, …

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NEFL surrenders lead late to SK, bows out of legion playoffs

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Offense had been an issue for New England Frozen Lemonade - Shields Post 43 in its last couple of close wins, but it looked like it may save it on Friday night.

NEFL had jumped out in front, 6-2, on South Kingstown - Post 39 with a chance to go to the championship game, and kept the score the same into the seventh inning. However, SK finally found momentum in the last three innings, scoring five unanswered runs en route to a 7-6 victory. It was NEFL’s second loss to SK in the American Legion tournament, after SK had handed NEFL its first defeat with a 9-5 win in the opening round.

“He was telling us just how proud he was of all of us,” Greaves said on what manager Jim Dawber told the team after the loss. “Just coming so far, beginning of the season we weren’t a huge hitting team and towards the playoffs and stuff we really came together. We buckled down and everything we weren’t doing we just finally started doing. And everything just clicked”

“[Dawber told us] that he would take nothing away,” Greaves said. “That this is one of the best teams he’s ever coached. He loves us.”

Early on, NEFL answered each time SK put a run up. After Brad Douglas’s RBI single put SK ahead 1-0, NEFL’s Austin Lamaire answered with an RBI double into left field that brought home Elvis Pimentel to tie the score.

Brendon Blessing’s RBI groundout in the second put SK up once again, but NEFL once again responded. Tyler DiPetrillo reached base on an error with one out in the home half, and got to second on Chris Reid’s infield single. Zach Bacon walked to load the bases with Pimentel, one of NEFL’s hottest hitters this postseason, due up. Pimentel delivered with a sacrifice fly that drove in the tying run.

James Meizoso, who was 1-for-10 coming into his next plate appearance, also came up big. After Reid and Bacon moved up on Pimentel’s sacrifice fly, Meizoso sent a single into left field that easily scored Reid. Bacon rounded third and ended up scoring after he crossed the plate before Meizoso was tagged out in a rundown, putting NEFL up 4-2.

NEFL got some more insurance for starter Elijah Dressel in the fourth. DiPetrillo, who hadn’t reached base in his last 12 plate appearances entering the game, got on for the second time with a single to lead off the frame. After a fielder’s choice moved him to second, Bacon smacked an RBI double to left to extend the lead out to 3.

“For us, for me, Zach [Bacon] and Alex [Lefebvre], and just some of the guys who aren’t gonna be here anymore, [including] Tyler DiPetrillo, we knew this was gonna be our last chance,” Greaves said. “This is our last shot. I’ve been playing with some of these guys since Little League, almost since they were 10 and [Dawber] knows that and he’s known all of us for so long.”

Bacon would score soon after, too, as Pimentel’s slow roller went under the glove of second baseman Jimmy Folco to give NEFL a four-run advantage.

Then, the bats fell silent.

In the final 5 2/3 innings, NEFL only managed two hits and only got one runner into scoring position, with no one getting beyond first base past the seventh inning.

It looked like that wouldn’t be a problem, though, as Dressel shut down SK in the first six innings. Dressel held Post 39, which scored 23 runs in its prior two games, to just four hits and two runs.

The wheels came off a bit in the seventh, which would end up being Dressel’s final inning.

After striking out Blessing to start the inning, Dressel hit leadoff batter Austin Butler with a pitch and walked Jason Comeau. A passed ball, of which DiPetrillo had at least one in the fifth, sixth and seventh inning, helped both advance to second and third.

Liam McGill then hit a grounder the way of Lamaire at third, but he couldn’t make a play and the ball rolled past him, allowing Butler to score.

With runners at the corners and one out, Comeau came home on a fielder’s choice to first that also moved McGill into scoring position. SK cut its deficit to 1 when Jake Beretta lined an RBI single into right field to score McGill, making it 6-5. Dressel would strike out Ryan Chadwick to end the inning, but it would be the final batter he faced.

Reliever James Meizoso, who two days before shut down Upper Deck in the ninth inning to close out NEFL’s win, came on to stave off SK in the final frames. Meizoso got the first out, but Kevin Richards and Blessing followed up with two straight base hits.

Butler struck out on a full count for the second out, but Comeau came up clutch. The third baseman sent a single up the middle to plate Richards for the tying run.

NEFL’s offense remained stagnant in the bottom of the eighth, as it was unable to advance Greaves after he reached on an error with one out.

Meizoso came back out to preserve the tie in the ninth. Douglas led off with a single, and a sacrifice moved him into scoring position. Meizoso got Chadwick to fly out, but it was deep enough to move Douglas to third. After Folco walked, Richards sent a grounder up the middle and off the glove of shortstop Tyler Perry to bring Douglas home for the go-ahead run.

NEFL went quietly in the ninth, as relief pitcher Douglas got Bacon to ground out before striking out Pimentel and Meizoso to end the game.

Despite the loss, Bacon said that how the team was conditioned all year pushed them to get as far as they did.

“Throughout the season, our coach said don’t do anything special,” Bacon said. “Everything’s the same, every game is a championship game. So that’s how we went throughout the whole season, was every game’s a championship game. So when we get down to the actual championship games, the playoff games, nothing changed for us beside maybe the intensity, but that intensity led us this far and I’m just so proud of the team.”

SK would go on to lose, 7-1, in the championship game at the hands of top-seeded Upper Deck - Posts 86/14, the team NEFL had defeated to reach SK for a rematch.

NEFL’s contest with Upper Deck was scoreless until the fifth when Pimentel crushed an RBI double to the left-centerfield fence to plate Bacon all the way from first base.

NEFL added some insurance in the seventh when Bacon scored on an error to make it 2-0. Reid’s RBI single in the eighth pushed the advantage out to 3, and it was more than enough with Greaves on the hill.

Greaves allowed one run on five hits in his eight innings of work against Upper Deck, forcing it to strand 10 runners on base. He allowed his only blemish on a fielder’s choice in the eighth.

“Tyler DiPetrillo was calling a great game,” Greaves said after the win over Upper Deck. “I could also trust my fielders, too. My fielders had been really putting it together so I knew if I threw anything over the plate and they hit it, I knew there was a really good chance we were gonna get the guy out.”

Meizoso closed out Upper Deck in the ninth to give NEFL its third straight win. After allowing the first two batters to reach, Meizoso struck out Sam Brito before forcing Mason Palmieri to fly out. Tyler Calabro went down swinging to end the game and the rally.

NEFL was one among only three teams to beat Upper Deck this season, along with Hurd Auto Mall - Post 19 and Gershkoff Auto Body - Auburn Post 20.

NEFL will lose some players headed into next year, including infielder Alex Lefebvre and Coast Guard-bound DiPetrillo in addition to Bacon and Greaves, but Greaves believes the team will be right back in it next year.

“We got a good squad going,” DiPetrillo said. “We got a bunch of returning players that’ll be freshmen in college. They’re gonna do great. They’re gonna pick it up how we finished. Like Danny said, we’re not a good hitting team but we started to come through at the end, and [the returning guys] see that. We’re a family. They all have good chemistry.”

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