Canton A's fall twice in tough
losses
By Mike Berger
Citizen Staff
Two bad
innings in two games cost the Canton Athletics a chance to move
further into playoff contention as the A’s fell to Weymouth 4-3
and the South Shore Warriors 5-4 last week. In addition, the A’s
tied the South Side Dirt Dogs 0-0 in a brilliant ballgame as
Sharon’s Andy Poliferno hurled nine innings of shutout ball
before the game was called because of darkness.
The A’s,
coached by Canton’s Cab Devoll, were 14-9-1 as of Sunday
evening, and have two more weeks of regular season play before
the start of the playoffs. Sunday’s home contest against the
Warriors was a battle for the last playoff spot, and with the
loss, the A’s dropped to sixth place, one point below the
Warriors. The top five teams enter the playoffs.
Sunday’s
loss was especially disappointing because Chris Smith, a former
CHS pitcher who has shown steady improvement this year, was
sailing along with a one-hitter as he approached the fifth
inning with a 4-0 lead. But two errors, two stolen bases, a hit
batsman, and three singles produced five runs and a lead for the
Warriors.
The A’s
threatened to score in the sixth and seventh innings, but could
not force the tying runs despite getting two runners on base in
both innings. To their credit, the A’s hustled to the early lead
with several bunt hits and stolen bases. Runs were knocked in by
Steve Delanian on a groundout, a sacrifice fly by Mark
Trachtenberg and a double by Alex Rossi. An Andy Dominquez
single knocked in the fourth run for the A’s.
Things
looked promising for the A’s in the game against Weymouth, as
they took a quick 3-0 lead on run-scoring hits by Delanian,
Canton’s Bill Murray, and Rossi. But Weymouth came back in its
half of the inning with several hits off Canton’s Greg Lyons,
and then squeezed another run home in the fourth to take the
lead. Trachtenberg and Delanian each had two hits in the loss.
Like Smith,
Poliferno has continued to improve and impress, and last week he
held the Dirt Dogs to just four hits and one walk as he struck
out eight batters. The Dirt Dog pitchers were even stingier,
however, limiting Canton to just one hit by Ricardo Sullivan.
The A’s were
hoping to get back on the winning track with a home game versus
Taunton yesterday. They then play a possible makeup game at home
against Braintree Saturday at 2 pm., followed by a doubleheader
against first-place Easton Sunday starting at 1 p.m. The regular
season is due to end on July 17.
July 10, 2008
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