SAUGUS — If the Saugus baseball team goes on to make it to the state tournament this spring, the Sachems can point to Wednesday’s 6-5, 11-inning win over Medford as a definite turning point.
“What a game,” said Saugus coach Joe Luis. “We had to come back three different times, and we had to make a lot of plays to get this win.”
Saugus trailed 3-0 and then 4-2 only to tie it in the bottom of the seventh when a sacrifice bunt attempt was thrown past first base, allowing two runs to score.
Then, after Jack Fargo nearly put Saugus in the wood chipper with a towering home run to right in the top of the 10th inning, the Sachems (5-5) came back to tie it on another Mustang error.
The game belonged to Saugus reliever Dom Clark, who relieved starter Mike Mabee (6 2/3 innings, three runs, six hits) with two out and two on in the top of the seventh, and went the rest of the way for his longest outing of the season. His most important inning was the top of the 11th, when he was laboring a bit, but breeze through, retiring Medford in order on only eight pitches.
That set the stage for the bottom of the inning. Skylar Smith started it off by dropping a bunt down off Fargo, the Mustangs’ third pitcher of the afternoon, whereupon Medford’s third baseman, Gino DiSimone, threw just wildly enough to draw the first baseman off the bag.
That brought reliever Jake Whisler back into the game. He had relieved starter Mike Nestor earlier, and coach Mike Nestor (the pitcher’s father) was hoping to get three outs and a save from Fargo. But once Smith got on, he went back to Whisler.
Paul Stamatopoulos bunted to the first baseman, who tagged him out, with Smith going to second. The Mustangs chose to walk John Torres intentionally, and Anthony Cogliano drilled a grounder into the hole between short and third, with Medford’s Ryan Donahue laying out to keep the ball in the infield.
“What a play,” marveled Luis. “I was all set to send (Smith) home. I couldn’t see, and thought the ball had gone through.”
Next up was C.J. Graffeo, who — to that point — had been quiet. He lifted a fly ball to medium left.
“It probably looked a little deeper than it was,” said Luis, “because with bases loaded and one out, they’re playing shallow.”
The ball carried, however, and ended up sailing over left fielder Zack Paulilo’s outstretched glove, allowing Smith to practically walk home with the winning run.
The win completes a day-long uphill climb for Saugus. The Sachems fell behind in the first inning when Paulillo led off with a double, and scored on two groundouts.
Neither team did much of anything until Medford put two more across in the he sixth. One run came home on a wild pitch and the other on a dropped third strike that resulted in a bizarre chain of events where catcher Jackson Stanton tagged the runner coming home in plenty of time, but then dropped the ball a few seconds later.
Saugus got two of those runs back in the bottom of the sixth. Ronnie Paolo and Stanton hit back-to-back singles, followed by Mabee’s base hit. Paolo scored on the hit and Stanton came home on a groundout.
It looked as if Medford (7-3) had scored an important insurance run in the top of the seventh when Paulillo’s base hit scored Donahue. But in the bottom of the seventh, John Torres singled and Anthony Cogliano walked. Graffeo’s bunt ended up being thrown into right field, and both Torres and Cogliano scored to tie the game.
There it stayed until the 10th, when Fargo’s blast put Medford up 5-4, but Paolo was hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the inning. He was erased at second and scored on an error.
“We haven’t made those kinds of plays all year,” said Nestor, “but today we made a few of them. We’ll have to use this as a lesson.”
