By Paul Vozzella
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
A late rally was enough for Medfield to win its home matchup against Greater Lowell Tech 4-1 in the preliminary round of the playoffs on Friday afternoon.
Medfield finished the regular season on a six-game win streak but had a seven day break between its regular season finale against Wellesley and its first playoff game.
“We had a few really good practices,” head coach Jon Dunn said on how his team took advantage of the long break. “We played a lot of games in the last two-and-a-half weeks, and we really did not have a lot of time with the weather to have some good practices. We were working on [pitchers fielding, bunting, cutoffs and pickoff plays]... This week gave us time to fine tune some of the details.”
Heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, the Warriors were tied 1-1. Tri-Valley League all-star senior Daniel Vaquez started the inning with a walk. Freshman Nathan Bills followed him with a single past the third baseman. Fellow TVL all-star senior Luke Gobin knocked in a run for the lead and sophomore CJ Herrick brought home two more runs with a single to give his team a three run lead.
Before the three-run inning, Medfield was struggling to find offensive production but managed to tie the game in the fifth inning. Herrick started the inning off with a walk and was able to advance to second base on a sacrifice bunt from sophomore Owen Sokolowski. Herrick completed his trip around the bases on an RBI-single from junior Alex Zilora.
In the field, Gobin got the start on the mound and pitched a complete game. He recorded three strikeouts while allowing three hits and five walks.
“He has done that all year,” Dunn said about Gobin’s performance. “He's an extremely competitive person who you know exactly what you're going to get when you put on the mound. He's going to go out there and he's going to throw strikes, and he's going to compete until the game's over… Every time he steps on the mound, everybody believes that we have a chance to win.”
Gobin carried a no-hitter into the fourth inning, but the Warriors’ offense stooped down to Greater Lowell Tech’s level by not recording a hit until the fifth inning.
Stopping the Warriors from getting a hit and multiple runs earlier in the game, Greater Lowell Tech made the play of the day. With a runner on first base, Vazquez crushed a ball to deep left field. Greater Lowell Tech’s outfielder jumped up and robbed the senior of a two-run home run as he fell over the fence but kept possession of the ball.
Eventually pulling out the win, Medfield could not repeat in the next round of the playoffs as it fell to No. 9 seed North Reading by a score of 8-0 to end the season.
