Behind pitching and defense, Sandwich Post 188 takes top spot in legion standings

SANDWICH — With the bases loaded and the Sandwich Post 188 Senior Legion Baseball team leading 4-1, pitcher Liam Howell took a step on the mound. As he looked around, he took a deep breath, wound up a pitch, and threw the ball, which was hit short. His teammates scooped it up and threw it to first base for the last out and a victory for Sandwich over Rockland Post 147.

"I have to give it to my guys," Howell said. "I was overthinking it too much personally, but I knew my guys on the field had me. I have to give credit to all of them."

This victory came after Sandwich trailed 1-0 going into the bottom of the sixth inning and had no hits in the game. Sandwich head coach Brian Tomasini said that no matter how much the team is struggling, they have some of the best players around.

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"They stuck to the plan of knowing it's a seven-inning game and with our defense and our pitching, we are always going to shut it down," said Tomasini. "It took some time to get some hits on (Jake Schulte), but once we finally did, we opened it up for four runs."

Sandwich has now won five games in a row. Pitching and defense have been the strengths for the success of their season so far.

"This is a special group because they come from so many good high school programs on Cape, plus all our college players that come back every year," said Tomasini. "We have a special pitching staff. We are just lucky to have such well-versed starters."

Running through the sixth inning

Rockland pitcher Schulte pitched lights out through the first five innings as he allowed no hits. Jared Lopes for Sandwich also pitched well, as he allowed no runs through the first five. With no runs on the board for both teams, Rockland's Aidan O'Donnell got the first RBI of the game with a single that scored Garrett Fisher. This gave the Raiders a 1-0 lead.

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In the bottom of the sixth, Brady Campbell got the first hit of the game for Sandwich with a single. Brayden Ramsey followed with a single and Cross Sierra walked for Post 188, and just like that, the bases were loaded. Chris Maseda , who led the lineup, got his first hit of the night with a single that scored Campbell and Ramsey.

"Going up I noticed that the pitcher he had a flat off-speed pitch and the changeup didn't look great," Maseda said. "I figured I would just go up for a fastball and attack that and put it up the middle, and it worked."

With a 2-1 lead, the hits kept coming as Sean Fancher got his first hit with a double that scored Sierra and Maseda and pushed Sandwich's lead to 4-1.

"My first instinct was to get the ball in the air and try to score the guy on third so we could have a little bit of cushion," Fancher said. "It only takes one inning to get runs, so I was just trying to build off the hit before me, and luckily I drove in two runs."

Sandwich hopes for deep playoff run

After losing their first game of the season 4-3 to Plymouth Post 40, Sandwich has won eight of their last nine games. They are tied for first place with Bridgewater Post 203 in the standings with both teams at 8-2.

The postseason starts in about a week and Tomasini said that he thinks his team just needs to keep doing what they're doing.

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"We won't change anything rolling into the playoffs because the biggest thing for us is we know that we have number ones all over the board that can pitch. We know it's always the next guy up and these guys want to be out there and they love it. The best part is coming together as a family, but late games like this to win it is huge."

Maseda said that Sandwich has been relying on the pitching so far, but if they make some changes, they are going to be tough to beat.

"Our defense has been really solid and not giving up many runs. We just need to pick up the hitting a little bit. it's been pretty good, but could definitely be better. Once we get that going, it's going to be scary."

Contact Courtney Jacobs at cjacobs@capecodonline.com. Follow him on Twitter: @CJ_Journalist.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Sandwich Post 188 having strong summer in Senior Legion baseball