Bulldogs Fall Short of Blue Sox Upset, End Impressive Season

At some point, a team is going to knock the four-time defending champion Lexington Blue Sox from the throne of the Intercity League, but it won’t be the Reading Bulldogs—not this year, at least.

The upstart Bulldogs, in just their second year in the ICL, gave the mighty Blue Sox all they could handle in the deciding Game 5 of their semifinal playoff series at Lexington High School on Monday night. But it wasn’t enough, as the eight-time champions rallied from down a run to walk off with a 4-3 victory to end Reading’s summer season. 

Blue Sox third baseman Ross Curley dropped down a well-placed bunt with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning to score right fielder Dan Graham and send Lexington back to the championship series. 

“There’s no bitterness there,” Reading manager Matt Morrison said after the game. “We feel like we’re right there with them, and being just two years into the league we feel like we’re moving in the right direction. We made the playoffs last year and this year we took a step forward.” 

The championship series will match the Blue Sox with the Andre Chiefs of Medford. Game One will take place Wednesday night at LHS with the first pitch scheduled for 8 p.m. 

The Blue Sox had to first slip past Reading, an upstart organization in its second year in the ICL. That was no small feat considering how hotly contested the first four games of the series were. With Lexington’s Game 5 win, the home team was victorious in each contest. 

“I would say to you that we had our hands full with Reading,” Blue Sox manager Rick DeAngelis said. “If you look at them they are younger than we are, we’ve been here many times (and) the core group has been to the playoffs and won a bunch of times. This team, theoretically, should not have been able to stay with us, except that the game of baseball is not played by theory, it’s not played on a piece of paper; it’s played on a baseball field.” 

There was nothing flashy about this one, as play was sloppy and both teams relied on a smallball strategy to push the precious few runs across home plate. They combined for 12 total hits, six apiece, while Reading was charged with four costly errors. 

A run in the first inning on a sacrifice fly from second baseman Andy Gagnon gave the Bulldogs an early lead against Blue Sox ace Matt Karis (seven innings, nine strikeouts, three runs, two earned). 

Lexington then battled back to take a 2-1 advantage with single runs in the second and third innings. Left fielder Matt McEvoy scored shortstop Steven Gath with a sacrifice fly in the second frame and first baseman Tommy Haugh scored an unearned run in the third when he reached on an error and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by second baseman Justin Wright. 

After Karis settled down to retire 12 straight Bulldogs following a shaky start to the first inning, Reading regained an edge against Lexington’s ace in the fifth inning with two runs. 

The Bulldogs tied the game at 2-apiece when Mike Russo reached on an infield single, moved up to second base on right fielder Kevin O’Leary’s walk and scored on a single up the middle by leadoff man and third baseman Bill Cataldo. O’Leary broke the tie when he scored on a Karis wild pitch. 

“In terms of our energy and intensity, I wouldn’t (trade) our team for anyone else,” Morrison said. “We just gutted it out throughout the (entire) series, best-of-five or whatever it was.” 

Tensions in the Reading dugout were high the rest of the game as a pair of close calls went in favor of the Blue Sox. A close play at first base drew the ire of the Bulldogs and their contingent of fans in the sixth inning, though the call proved inconsequential to the overall outcome. 

Lexington did tie the score in the sixth, as McEvoy reached on a throwing error by Reading pitcher Colin McGinn and later scored on a wild pitch. McGinn pitched well to notch a complete game and gave up just a single earned run. 

However, in the seventh, Morrison was thrown out of the game and then the ballpark entirely when he argued balls and strikes with the home plate umpire. The batter, Lexington’s Gath, eventually walked to give the Blue Sox two men on with no out. 

“I just felt like I wanted (Lexington) to earn it instead of just giving it to them. You know, make the ump make the call,” Morrison said of the dustup with the umpires. “I was just sticking up for my guys, which I’m going to do any day.”

Catcher Jeff Vigurs sacrificed both men over with a bunt, and Reading then opted to intentionally walk McEvoy to load the bases and set up a potential inning-ending double play.

DeAngelis called timeout to put on the bunt sign and Curley dropped a beauty between the mount and first base that gave neither McGinn nor Trevor Manzi a chance to throw out Graham at home. Graham, who was unsure if he was returning to the Blue Sox before the season began, was mobbed by teammates at the plate before they turned their attentions to Curley on the infield grass.