Drew Baacke (pictured) fires home a pitch in the top of the second inning. Photo by Mike Flanagan.
By Mike Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
The River Rats' dominant start to the inaugural 2020 Major Independent Baseball League season continued on Monday night as Medfield/DS hosted Dedham and looked to move to 10-1 on the season.
Following a scoreless top half by starting pitcher Drew Baacke (three innings, four strikeouts, two hits), the River Rats' bats got hot. Nick Sheehan and Dennis Folan singled to begin the home half of the first, followed by a three-run bomb by Ben Leonard to dead center field.
Medfield/DS' offense blew the game open in the bottom of the third inning when Sheehan and Folan cracked back-to-back home runs to straight-away center to extend the lead to 5-0. Sam Kornet drew a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch before coming around to score thanks to an RBI ground-rule double off the bat of Jack Goodman. An RBI fielder's choice by Ryan Murray scored Goodman to extend the lead to 7-0 after three innings.
The game remained 7-0 until the bottom of the sixth inning when Nick Chicos drove home Sam Palmer with an RBI sacrifice fly, extending the lead to 8-0. Matt Donahue (four innings, three hits, zero runs) came back out for the top of the seventh and shut the door with a 1-2-3 inning as Medfield came away with the 8-0 shutout victory.
For funny and incisive sports analysis as well as game highlights, follow Mike Flanagan on his personal Twitter and Instagram @flano0.
