It’s been an exciting start for Foxboro Post 93 Legion baseball team. Overcoming a 1-0 deficit Tuesday night, Foxborough came back to squeeze by with a 2-1 win against Brookline.
It was a pitchers duel for most of the evening. With two solid pitchers in Nick Carafa for Foxboro and Eric Dumas for Brookline, hits and runs were a rarity.
“When I saw the other guy (Dumas) throw early I said I’m glad he’s (Carafa) on the hill because I knew runs were going to be hard to score in this game,” said Foxboro head coach Bill Travers.
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Carafa pitched a complete game victory with six strikeouts and a walk, while throwing over 103 pitches. For Brookline, Dumas Pitched 5.1 innings, also striking out six and walking four.
With the pitchers’ dual going on, both teams had to try to grab runs with any opportunity they would get. Brookline struck first in the top of the third inning with a run from Hikari Mamata. After dodging a close call in a successful attempt to steal second base, Mamata got lucky again after tagging up from third after a sacrifice fly out to get the game’s opening run. While called safe, some on the Foxboro benched believed that Mamata left third base early and was out at the plate.
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“That’s baseball. It's a game of inches. I thought he left early from third and everybody kinda seems to think he was out at home. That’s the umpire and why we’re paying him,” said Travers.
Despite the run, Foxborough looked to slowly get back in the game. With each inning, they seemed to get a little closer to scoring each time. Foxborough would break through the glass ceiling in the top of the sixth inning with a huge two-run triple from Steve Fitzmaurice. With two men on, Fitzmaurice smacked a drive into right field to give Foxboro a 2-1 lead, which was enough to win the game.
It was another tough win for a Foxborough team that has been involved in nothing but close games early on. Despite the win, Travers still sees some issues at the plate that he hopes to correct as the season goes on.
“That’s the kind of team we have right now. We’re struggling hitting, so we gotta kinda scratch and claw for runs,” said Travers.
With the win, Foxboro improved to 2-1 on the season.
Next up for Foxborough will be a 5:45 p.m. Thursday home match up with Norwood Post 70, Thursday . Norwood is currently 1-1 with their first win of the season coming last Sunday against Brookline, 7-0. Game time is set for 5:45 p.m.
