The Reading Lou Tompkins League entries in both the A and B divisions knocked off their Medford opponents last evening in the third round of the league’s Tournament of Champions. Both teams will play at Belmont HS on Saturday in the semi-finals.
In the 14 year old B division Rob DiLoreto’s team ended the regular season on an eight game winning streak (15-5) and secured a #3 seed for the playoff round.
After a 4-1 loss at home on Tuesday to Medford, the team came back to win their next two games versus Sudbury (5-4) then in a rematch with Medford (9-8). All three games were home games played at Symonds Field.
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In Tuesdays elimination game win, Sudbury scored twice in the 7th inning to tie up Reading and the game progressed to extra innings. In the bottom of the 8th, Corey DiLoreto’s ground rule double was the walk off hit that won the game for Reading and brought them to Thursday’s classic.
On Thursday, Medford took an early lead before DiLoreto hit a three run double to deep left field gave Reading a 6-3 lead.
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Reading tacked on another run before Medford exploded for five runs aided by two long doubles which gave them an 8-7 lead in the sixth inning. Further damage was avoided when Ben Fischer saved a run with a diving over the shoulder grab of another Medford rocket to end the inning.
It was DiLoreto again providing the key offense in the bottom of the inning with a two out rbi double that bounced into the woods in right field that tied the game at eight.
In the top of the seventh pitcher Joe Bradley got out of a jam with the lead run on third base with a key strikeout then a fly ball out to end the inning.
In Reading’s at-bat , a single by Jack Gohr got things going with one out. Gohr advanced to second on a wild pitch and was moved to third on Jared Stack’s infield out. This brought up Mike Rainone who blasted the game winning hit to deep left center field.
The Reading LTA A Division team may have slipped into the TOC Round of the Lou Tompkins Tournament as the No. 8 seed but it caught fire at the right time.
After losing its first game in the TOC round to Belmont (9-2), Reading received a big lift on the mound from Nick O'Neil who went six strong innings to pitch his team to an 8-2 victory over Ayer to send them to Medford.
Reading got out fast on Medford in its second straight elimination game and went on to a 9-5 win in a game called due to darkness in the seventh inning. The score then reverted back to the last complete inning, the sixth, for the 9-5 final.
Chuck Robinson's team received gutty pitching from its tired arms. Nico Gennari pitched the first three innings to get credit for the win allowing just one run. Dan Sletterink went the next two innings while Tommy White pitched the sixth.
Shortstop Mark Dalton paced a 14-hit attack with a 4 for 4 performance at the plate that also drove in three runs. Sletterink had three hits and scored two runs while Mike Algeri and Will Murray each had two hits and two RBIs. Carl Gillies also carved out a pair of hits with a run driven in.
