Bulldogs/Blue Sox Nail-Biter on Hold, Will Resume Friday

After seven innings of hard-fought baseball, the sun set on the Reading Bulldogs and Lexington Blue Sox Thursday night and play was suspended with game two of their best-of-five semifinal series tied 2-2.

The postponement sets up a crucial and unconventional doubleheader in Lexington tonight, with the teams picking up right where they left off in game two, the start of extra innings, and then continuing on to play game three.

“This is as good as summer baseball gets,” Bulldogs manager Matt Morrison said after play was suspended at . “It’s all about who’s going to crack first.”

Natural light won’t be an issue in Lexington tonight, as action will begin at 8 p.m. under the lights.

With the top-seeded Blue Sox (25-6-1) leading the series 1-0 after their , a bad night could spell the end of the fifth-seeded Bulldogs’ (16-15-1) Intercity League season. However, a good night could put them in the driver’s seat heading into a potential game four.

On Thursday, the Bulldogs struck first, scoring once in the bottom of the second inning and then again in the fourth to take a 2-0 lead more than halfway through the game.

“We had them on their heels, but they just battled back,” Morrison said.

The Blue Sox scored both their runs in the top of the sixth inning.

In the second, Bulldogs catcher Zak Talis reached first on a leadoff double. Then, the next better, first baseman Andrew Dewing, got him home with a single past the Blue Sox diving second baseman, Justin Wright.

In the fourth, Talis reached again, on an infield single, and later scored when right fielder Andy Gagnon singled up the middle.

Bulldogs starter Derek Cotoni struggled with his control early, walking five batters and hitting one in the first three innings, but he went unscathed until the sixth.

“He just battled,” Morrison said. “You could tell he was just that veteran type of kid who wouldn’t give in.”

Blue Sox pinch hitter Nick Martinho, who had the game-winning hit in game one, and Wright put the runs across in the sixth. On Wright’s two-out single, third baseman Chas Agrillo scored easily and then center fielder Pete Frates was called out on a close play at the plate to end the inning.

Former Reading High School standout Steve Buitkus, now of Salem State University, made the throw in from right field to prevent the go-ahead run.

Cotoni gave up six hits and walked six in six innings of work. Teammate Nick Kelley relieved Cotoni to start the seventh and is expected to stay on the mound for the eighth tonight.

Blue Sox starter Drew Brzozowki allowed eight hits, while striking out five, in seven innings. Blue Sox manager Rick DeAngelis said he was planning to go to the bullpen to start the eighth inning regardless of the delay.

DeAngelis also said he felt good about Thursday’s game before it was called.

“I thought we had the momentum,” he said, “but that’s baseball as they say.”