Ashland Red Sox Win 2006 MetroWest League Championship
Game One
Ashland Red Sox - 11
Medway Phillies - 7
Game Two (13 inn.)
Ashland Red Sox - 8
Medway Phillies - 7
The Ashland Red Sox pulled off perhaps the biggest championship round upset in the history of the
MetroWest Adult Baseball League with a rollicking doubleheader sweep of the 20-1 Medway Phillies
Sept. 24 at Medway.
The late-charging Red Sox swept all five of their playoff games after finishing 9-9 on the regular
season.
Led by the hitting of John Badaracco (5-for-6, 5 RBI), Joe Casula (4-for-5), Steve Slowik (4-for-6),
and Mike Donfrancesco (3-for-6), the always dangerous Ashland offense turned downright criminal when
the heat was on. 30 Red Sox hits produced 18 Red Sox runs in the doubleheader.
The Phillies pitching staff had previously allowed the Sox but one run all year.
On the mound, veteran Sox hurler Steve Saraceno collected the victory in both games. Rookie Mike
Donfrancesco -- usually a closer -- delivered a 7 1/3 inning clutch start in the nightcap, more than
doubling his longest stint of the year.
Saraceno, for his part, totaled of 15 innings on the day. Following an adventurous complete game
voyage in the opener, the 51-year-old righthander came on in the eighth inning of the nightcap to
collect the win and the championship -- seemingly years later -- in the thirteenth. It was Saraceno's
fourth victory of the playoffs, including two shutouts and a bases-loaded save.
Game One
Ashland Red Sox - 11
Medway Phillies - 7
Red Sox centerfielder John Badaracco dominated Game One with a 3-for-3, 4 RBI performance that
included a double and an eighth-inning three-run homer to slam the door on a late Phillies comeback.
Badaracco's line-drive blast followed a four-run Phillies uprising in the seventh which had moved
Medway to within striking range at 7-6.
"I think that homer took a lot of the spirit out of the Phils," said Sox Manager Steve Saraceno
afterwards, pretending to be interviewed by ESPN. "After that shot, they had to be saying to
themselves, 'What do we have to do to beat this team?'"
The first game featured some clearly non-Championship-caliber defense on both sides. Of the seven
total errors, the Sox committed four, allowing four unearned runs. But Ashland also caught a break
when Phillies ace Jamie Nix departed in the fourth inning with an arm problem. (Nix did later return
to pitch several effective innings late in Game Two.)
After some early back-and-forth, Ashland grabbed the lead for good in the fourth inning. With two
outs and the bases loaded, Steve Halzel blooped a two-run single into short left off reliever Rick
Huckins. The Sox increased the lead to 7-2 in the top of the seventh with singles by Steve Triveri
and rightfielder Keith Cheverie, a Victor Saraceno sacrifice fly, and a triple by third baseman Joe
Casula.
Sox starter Saraceno seemed to be cruising into the bottom of the seventh. But leadoff hitters Chris
Decatur (2-for-3 in the game, two runs) and Will Goulart (5-for-8 on the day) both singled, followed
by an outfield error to plate one run. Dave Devellis doubled to score two more. Suddenly Ashland
found Medway back in the game at 7-6.
"The Phillies bench became quite vocal at this point," Saraceno said afterwards, sitting before a
video camera with no film in it. "I haven't been that shook on the mound since the kids in Stan
Musial League used to taunt me with, 'Hey Dad, can I borrow the car keys!' But the joke was on them,
you see, because I didn't even have a car at the time!"
Saraceno retired the next two batters to escape further harm. Then in the eighth Badaracco's clutch
blast increased the cushion to 11-6. Saraceno set down the Phils in order in the ninth, assisted
by a sparkling play at third base by Casula.
Game One to the Red Sox.
During the break between games, six Ashland players stood near the bench, pensive figures outlined
against a blue-grey sky. These were the Six Original Red Sox, the last surviving veterans of the
disastrous campaigns of 2002 and 2003, seasons that saw but one victory in thirty-five tries. Back
then, any mention of the Ashland Red Sox around the league would have drawn mirth to the eye, and a
pleasant shake to the belly. Steve Slowik, Chris Cronin, Pete Greene, Victor Saraceno, Wayne Sylvia,
Steve Halzel. These men had traveled far. They had suffered greatly. Now the pinnacle of MetroWest
glory stood one short step away.
O, what terrible thoughts must have passed through their minds!
Game Two (13 inn.)
Ashland Red Sox - 8
Medway Phillies - 7
Mike Donfrancesco got the nod for Ashland in Game Two, matched up against the Phillies' Chris Decatur.
In March the Red Sox selected Donfrancesco at the newly instituted league draft. The 33-year-old
righthander had not thrown a ball in anger since his days at Boston University.
"Mike told me he was a one-inning pitcher," Saraceno recalled. "So that's pretty much how we used
him all year."
Until Game Two.
Donfrancesco -- or "Sauce" as the team likes to call him -- poured it on for seven-and-one-third
innings, leaving the game in the eighth inning with one runner on and a 6-5 lead.
"He wanted to stay in," Saraceno said. "And I, for my part, wanted to stay out. But as my close
buddy Mick Jagger once told me, Stevie, you can't always get what you want."
So the change was made. Saraceno's appearance set the stage for a rousing final act, one that will
be long remembered by the fans who were there -- if only for the sheer tedium of watching grown men
refuse to stop playing despite the arrival of dinnertime and wives with rolling pins in their hands.
But first the build-up:
The two teams traded early leads. Ashland's Steve Southard -- another Sox rookie -- stroked a clutch
two-out single to score two in the second. Medway answered with runs in the third and fourth, taking
advantage of walks and a Red Sox error.
In the sixth "Sauce" helped his own cause with a mammoth blast to centerfield to knock in a run,
tying things again at 4-4. The perfectly executed Phillies relay, however, erased Donfrancesco at
third. He also injured his foot on the play, breaking the big toe. Still the Sauce was not yet
cooked. He took the mound in the seventh.
Medway regained the lead in the top of the inning on an RBI single by Will Goulart (4-for-4 in the
game, including a double).
In the stretch half of the seventh, Ashland's Keith Cheverie (2-for-5 on the day, 3 runs, great catch
in left) and Southard both singled. Chris Cronin's base hit tied the game at 5-5. With the Red Sox
now warming to the kill, Joe Casula singled to load the bases.
Light-hitting Steve Saraceno now stepped up to the plate. With the count 2-0, assistant coach Brent
McKenzie flashed the sign for a suicide squeeze. Saraceno laid down the bunt. Amid great excitement,
the Sox took the lead.
At this point, high in the sky above the Medway playing field, pockets of blue nudged open in the
firmament. For some, it seemed almost if the ghosts of Red Sox past were jostling to get a look.
And indeed it appeared there might be something to see. Reliever Saraceno worked out of a jam in the
eighth, and almost did it again in the ninth. But the Medway Phillies had not won twenty games this
year for nothing.
Down to their last out, the Phillies scraped together a score on an error and a wild throw, tying the
game at 7-7.
The blue sky closed up.
Regrouping, drawing a deep breath, the Sox again maneuvered into position for the knockout punch in
the bottom of the ninth. Singles by Slowik and McKenzie put a man on third with less than two out.
But once again Medway parried the blow, turning a pressure-packed 6-4-3 double play as the potential
title-clinching run crossed the plate.
The two teams had played 18 hard-fought innings on the day. Now it was time to get serious.
The home team Red Sox ran out to their positions in the top of the tenth. Then -- as so often happens
in crucial baseball games -- time vanished. What took its place was a frozen tableau of scoreless
frames, a nervous spectacle of vanity and stasis. How many thousands of people -- nay, tens of
thousands, millions -- had tasted just such a moment since baseball first took shape on the pastures
and town commons of New England two centuries ago? Inning after inning the two aces, Nix and Saraceno,
as inevitable as figures on a Grecian urn, arrayed in mute procession, pitch after pitch, wind-up after
wind-up, delivery upon delivery, transfixing all batters until the act of swinging itself took on the
abject posture of eternity.
"This is getting boring," said a fan.
Medway threatened in the twelfth with a Devillis triple. Again in the thirteenth with Mark Rogers
stranded at second.
Ashland glimpsed the championship 90 feet away in the tenth, following a Kevin Quinn hit. In the
twelfth, Casula doubled but got no further.
And so they played on, hostages to a sport with no clock, marooned in the horse latitudes of time.
In baseball, as every player sooner or later comes to learn, things end only when they decide to end.
And not a moment before.
Though even a Grecian urn may sometimes crack.
The old pot finally took a good tumble with two outs in the bottom of the thirteenth. Ashland's
Steve Slowik singled. On the next pitch, mustering one last burst from legs sacrificed to 22 strong
innings at shortstop, Slowik stole second.
Medway took a breath.
The much feared John Badaracco stepped to the plate.
"I wasn't nervous," Badaracco said in a video interview later. "I just kept thinking, get a good
pitch, and eventually I did. It was all curves in that at-bat."
With two strikes, after fouling off a couple benders, Badaracco lofted a humpbacked line drive toward
right-center. The ball dropped. Slowik rounded third. The throw came home.
The Red Sox bench surged forward in anticipation. In 2003 Stephen Joseph Slowik had scored the first
run ever for the debuting Ashland Red Sox. In 2006...he scored the last run.
The clouds parted.
The sun came out.
And the Ashland Red Sox raised their eyes to heaven.
Epilogue
Ashland would like to congratulate the Medway Phillies on a truly excellent season. Also a tip of
the cap to manager Rick Huckins for his sportsmanship during the games, and the gutsy pitching he
displayed in coming back so soon after surgery this summer. When two evenly matched teams go at it
like the Sox and Phils did, it is always a rare experience, no matter who wins.
Standouts for the Phillies included Will Goulart with 5 hits on the day (4-for-4 in Game Two), Dave
Devellis (3 hits, triple in Game Two), Mark Anderson (3 hits), Mark Rogers (2), and Chris Decatur
(2-for-3 in Game One).
Sox leftfielder Brian Farrell injured a knee (which will require surgery) late in extra-innings of
the second game. Phils third-baseman Decatur helped prevent further injury by catching Farrell as
he collapsed trying to stand.
Farrell played a big part in the Ashland resurgence this year. The team's best wishes for a full
recovery go out to him.
"I should also mention a couple other things," Manager Saraceno said in a postgame press conference
at which no reporters appeared. "Brent McKenzie played a big role in catching both games on a bad
knee. His gunning down of Goulart stealing in the eleventh inning of Game 2 helped me immensely.
Not to mention his call for the suicide squeeze!"
Asked to shut up, Saraceno continued: "Steve Lawless posted a breakout season at the plate. Hey,
did you know we turned 4 double plays in the second game with a 53-year-old guy [Carl Hakansson]
playing second?
"I also would like to thank the front office for supporting us on the field this year," Saraceno
continued, as friends and family drifted from the room. "The new acquisitions Steve Triveri, Mike
Donfrancesco, Keith Cheverie, Steve Southard…and what about Book'em Danno Phelan! I think we lost
exactly one game after picking up Big Dan in July!"
Saraceno collapsed over the podium at this point, but added before losing consciousness:
"Pete Greene did a hell of a job coaching first. I think his team attitude had to exemplify
what was best about…"
The Sox won 12 of their last 13 games in 2006. It is the first MetroWest League championship for
every player on the squad except Steve Saraceno, who won with the Framingham Orioles in 1999, 2001,
2002, and 2003.
Prior to this year the last MetroWest League team to win the title other than the Orioles was also a
Sox team -- the Watertown Red Sox of 2000. Saraceno was on the mound for that victory as well -- as
losing pitcher.