Bulldogs "Walk Off" with Two Wins against Mooney Dental

Game One

Mooney Dental (2)-  Lentini 4-1, Lowe 3-0, Dell’anno 2-1, D. Dettore 3-0, DeNapoli 4-1, Nardelli 2-0, N. Dettore 1-0, Ruocco 3-0, McDonald 3-3, Galli 1-0, Totals 26-6

Reading (3) – B. Flutie 3-1,Cataldo 2-1, Talis 2-0, Manzi 3-0, Fischer 3-2, Dewing 3-0, Hartwell 2-0, Bishop 1-1, Dellorfon 3-1,  Strukel 2-1, Gagnon 0-0 Totals 24-7

Doubles – B. Flutie, Fischer, Bishop

Home Run- DeNapoli

WP- Eisenberg (1-1)  LP-  Bishop (3-3) 

Mooney     0000110   2  6  1

Reading    0010011   3  7  0

Game Two

Mooney Dental (4)-  Lentini 4-2, Lowe 4-1, Mullin 4-1, Wilson 4-2, DeNapoli 4-2,  D. Dettore 4-1,  Burke 4-0, Galli 2-0, Dell’anno 2-1, Ruocco 3-1 Totals 35-10

Reading (5) – B. Flutie 4-0, Cataldo 4-2,  Manzi 4-2, Talis 3-0, Fischer 4-1, Bishop 3-2, Gagnon 3-2, O’Leary 2-1, Dewing 1-0, Hartwell 0-0, Dellorfon 3-2,  Totals 31-12

Doubles – Cataldo, Bishop, Dellorfon, Gagnon

WP- Kelley (1-0)  LP-  Blum   (2-2) 

Mooney    20020000     4  11  0

Reading    00001121    5  12  0

Wrap:

The Bulldogs displayed some late inning clutch play in winning both games of the doubleheader versus Mooney Dental in walk-off fashion by scores of 3-2 and 5-4 (8 innings), on Sunday afternoon at Morton Field.

The wins bring the Bulldogs back to a .500 record (9-9-1) and in the thick of the playoff race again after a seven game losing streak had put them near the bottom of the standings.

In the middle of both game-ending plays was Andy Gagnon, who had struggled at the plate of late—until yesterday. Gagnon came off the bench in Game 1 to launch a sacrifice fly to right center to bring home the winner in the bottom of the seventh. In Game 2, he led off the bottom of the eighth with a rocket off the center field fence and eventually scored the winner on a controversial “wild pitch”.

“I had been tense and pressuring myself at the plate for a while now. After sitting out the last couple of games, I came back today and focused on a more relaxed approach, and it paid off,” Gagnon said.

For Coach Morrison, the end result was satisfying, but getting there was difficult.

“It never had the feel of a winning day out there, we could have just as easily lost two today, we were only ahead for two innings the whole afternoon,” he said.

In Game 1, the Bulldogs struggled to get more than a base runner an inning off of Woburn starter Jonathan Bishop. And when Tanner slugger Keegan DeNapoli deposited a Derek Cotoni pitch well over the left center field fence it was a 2-1 deficit for the Bulldogs with six outs left.

The Bulldogs pieced together the tying run in the sixth when Bill Cataldo singled and stole second and scored on a flair hit by Alex Fischer that just eluded the reach of the Mooney second baseman diving on the play.

After the eventual winning pitcher Dan Eisenberg set down the Tanners in order in the seventh, the Bulldogs started the winning rally.

Pinch hitter Andrew Bishop doubled deep to left to lead off the inning and moved to third on a wild pitch. From there Gagnon did the job coming off the bench to deliver the game winner.

Game 2 provided the Bulldogs a bigger challenge as the Mooney bats were hot with 4 runs and 10 hits over the first four innings.

Reliever Nick Kelley was given the ball in the fifth and his four inning, no run, and one hit effort kept the Bulldogs alive in the late innings.

The Bulldogs pecked away stating in the fifth and sixth inning with single runs before the two-run seventh inning rally got them into extra innings.  Doug Dellorfon doubled to start it off before a one-out hit by Cataldo. The recent run of clutch hitting by Trevor Manzi continued as he singled in a run to cut the deficit to 4-3. 

Mooney then brought in a tough sidearmer, Dan Blum, who induced an infielder grounder to first by Zac Talis, but a hesitation by the first baseman throwing to the plate allowed Cataldo to come sliding home with the tying run.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Bulldogs finished off the comeback afternoon when Gagnon trotted home on a wild pitch from third, after his leadoff double, on a ball that the Tanners claimed hit pinch hitter Darrren Hartwell’s foot. 

“It was a real team effort today—nothing spectacular but a lot of guys made key plays for us all afternoon, from great infield play on the left side, to Derek Strukel  just joining us and contributing, to Cotoni’s excellent start, and then to Dan and Nick closing out for us strong on the mound,” Morrison said.

“I have said it all year, we rely on pitching and defense and small ball on offense," he said. "We didn’t make an error all day, and we are going to live or die with that formula the rest of the way.”

The Bulldogs have a busy stretch with three straight road games this week, before returning home for their final home doubleheader of the season on Sunday with the Medford Americans.