The Chieftains doused the Red Devils this afternoon, 7-0, in the preliminary round, sending them in hot to round one.
It was sophomore Cruz Zizza on the bump today for the Chieftains. He made his teammate’s job easy in this one as he threw seven innings, giving up one hit and zero runs while striking out half a dozen with zero walks. This performance came as no surprise as Zizza had a fantastic season on the mound, striking out 35 total batters and establishing himself as one of the top pitchers in the Northeast Conference (NEC).
Masco first struck the scoreboard in the second inning when junior outfielder Liam Ginley bunted, leading to senior captain Chris Porfido reaching third and following that up by stealing home a few pitches later on a passed ball.
After grabbing another run in the fifth inning, the Chieftains really broke the game loose in the sixth where they extended their lead to 7-0. The parade started with junior DH Aidan Brown smacking a double leading to an RBI. Junior NEC All-Star captain Drew Gustafson and junior catcher Drew Nelson both drove in runs after getting hit by pitches. Sophomore NEC-All Star Davis DeLuties capped off the successful sixth inning when he belted a two-run single extending the Chieftain lead to seven.
Macso also was on point in the field this afternoon, going the whole game without an error.
The (35) Chieftains hit the road once again, but this time as heavy underdogs, as they’ll face (3) North Attleboro on Monday at four. Sometimes all it takes for an upset is the underdog getting hot, and luckily for this Masco team they are coming in steaming, going 7-2 through their last nine, anything can happen in the tournament.