On Monday July 11th, Ashland Legion Post 77 took on Woburn Post 101. Woburn struck for a run in the top of the 2nd when Coleman Began drove in Sam Cabot on an RBI single. That would be the only run until the bottom of the 4th when Ashland exploded for 8 runs.
After sailing through the first 3 innings, Woburn starter, Brian Govostos struggled and walked 7 hitters in the bottom of the 4th and gave up a 2 RBI single to Zach Jacobs (Holliston). Matt Coughlin pitched in relief but gave up another 2 run base hit to Jake Obid (Holliston). Ashland struck for 8 runs in the bottom of the 4th and that would be the only scoring for the rest of the game as the young Ashland Legion team took the 8-1 victory and improved to 3-10-1 while Woburn fell to 2-10.
On Tuesday July 12th, things did not look good for Ashland when they met up with Natick Post 107. Natick came into the game at 7-7 and fighting for the final playoff spot in District 5. Natick batted around and struck for 4 runs off of starter Michael Crupi (Ashland) in the top of the 1st. Post 77 retaliated in the bottom of the inning with a run when Mike Messier (Hopkinton) hit a sacrifice fly-out to drive in Jake Obid (Holliston). Both teams added on 3 runs a piece in the 4th inning. Sameer Sharma (Deerfield Academy), Jake Obid (Holliston) and Shawn Babineau (Ashland) all hit RBI singles for Post 77 to make it a 7-4 game. Natick added an additional run in the top of the 5th.
Natick held the 8-4 lead into the bottom of the 6th, the umpires agreed that the 6th inning would be the last inning due to lack of sunlight. Natick starter, Rick White remained in the game for the final inning and struck out the 1st hitter. White would end up getting pulled out of the game after giving up a single to Sameer Sharma, walking Jake Obid followed by an RBI single by Shawn Babineau. Mark Soma moved from the DH spot to pitch the rest of the game. Zach Jacobs continued the rally against the relief pitcher with an RBI single, Mike Messier followed up with another RBI single to pull Ashland within 1. After Ronan Bates struck out for the 2nd out of the inning, Trevor DePeron (Ashland) laced a hit just past the reach of the shortstop to drive in Jacobs and tie the game at 8. Soma then attempted to intentionally walk Andrew Keim (Holliston), but Keim had other ideas as he swung for one of the intentional walk pitches and dropped it into left field to drive in Messier for the game winning run.
Ashland Post 77 took the 6 inning game by a final score of 9-8 and improved to 4-10-1 overall while knocking Natick down to 7-8 and making their chance of a playoff spot unlikely. Ashland struggled throughout much of the season but have won 3 straight games in their final week of the season and will end on a high note.
View Highlights below Courtesy: HCAM Television (Hopkinton Cable Access)
