NORTH EASTON, Mass. - Oliver Ames broke open a tie game with three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and junior Brendan Welch tossed a complete game as the Tigers beat Milton, 5-2, to advance to the MIAA D2 South Quarterfinals.
The fourth-seeded Tigers fell behind 2-0 in the top third inning but leveled the score with two runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth. A three run sixth inning gave Oliver Ames the lead for good while Welch allowed just two hits on the day and struck out five.
"Brendan was great," OA head coach Leo Duggan said. "He's been our number one guy all year, he did a good job today."
With the game tied 2-2, OA senior catcher Joe Walsh ripped the second pitch he saw deep into left center field, into the trees at Frothingham Park, for a lead off triple. With the infield playing in, OA second baseman Adam Burr grounded a single up the middle to score Walsh to make it 3-2. Nolan Edwards then took an 0-2 count and roped a double into left field, scoring pinch runner Andrew Perron from first to make it 4-2. Shortstop Brian Holmes executed his second sacrifice bunt of the game to move Edwards over to third base and center fielder Mike Ferrara hit a sacrifice fly to center field to play Edwards for a 5-2 lead.
Welch struck out junior Jason Turner to start the top of the seventh and then induced back-to-back ground outs from Chris Cullen and Connor Shea to end the game.
The Wildcats took the lead in the third inning on the only two hits they had all game. Number eight hitter Alex Toyias singled up the middle just out of the reach of Holmes to lead off the inning. It looked as though Toyias was picked off at first but was called safe. The next pitch, Milton's number nine hitter John Lawton ripped a double into left field to plate Toyias to go up 1-0. At the next at-bat, lead off man and pitcher Colin McCabe hit a grounder to second, but the ball eluded Burr for an error and Lawton scored from second to make it 2-0.
It looked as though the Tigers would get at least a run back in the bottom half of the inning, but were unable to push a run across. Holmes led off with a single into center - a play originally ruled as an out on a diving catch in center, but overturned after Duggan came out to question - and Ferrera and Romero followed up with singles to load the bases with no outs. But McCabe got Welch to strikeout looking and then induced pop ups from David Romero and Alex Geba to protect the 2-0 lead.
But in the bottom of the fourth, Oliver Ames knotted the score at two. Burr atoned for his error in the third inning with a single in the fourth. Edwards followed with a grounder to third, but Chris Cullen's throw to second to try and turn two sailed just wide and into the outfield, as Burr advanced to third. Holmes' first sac bunt of the game came next, moving Edwards to second before Ferrara - the Hockomock League's RBI leader - singled into left field to score both Burr and Edwards to tie the game 2-2.
"The kids were confident and they came back and played well," Duggan said. "It was nice to come back being down 2-0. I was thinking 'Uh-oh' just like last year, we lost 2-0 to Sharon. It was great to see the kids come back. These kids don't quit."
After giving up the two hits in the third inning, Welch allowed just one base runner - his lone walk of the game to lead off the fifth - for the rest of the game. He needed just 38 pitches over the last four innings to shut Milton down and tallied four of his five strikeouts.
Ferrara finished 2-2 with three RBI, Walsh went 1-3 with a triple and run scored, Burr was 2-3 with an RBI and a run, Edwards was 1-2 with two runs and Holmes was 1-1 with two sac bunts which both turned into runs.
Oliver Ames advances to play fifth-seeded Duxbury in the D2 South Quarterfinals. The Dragons took down Stoughton, 9-8 in the First Round. The game is currently schedule for Monday, June 2nd at 4:00 according to the MIAA website.
Ryan Lanigan can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @R_Lanigan.