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NORTH EASTON, Mass. -– Oliver Ames sent 10 hitters to the plate and scored six runs in the second inning against Franklin starter Brendon Kuzio, on the way to a 9-5 victory over the Panthers on Wednesday afternoon at Frothingham Park in Easton.

Andrew Mancini sparked the Tigers offense with three hits and three RBI, while Dave MacKinnon struck out six over five-plus innings in his first start of the season. The win improved the Oliver Ames record to 9-1 this year (all of them league games), a mark that head coach Leo Duggan, in his 27th season at the helm, was not expecting.

“If you had told me at the beginning of the year that we’d be 9-1...I don’t know...It’s great,” said Duggan. “The kids are great and they work hard.”

OA grabbed a lead in the second inning that it would not relinquish. After a leadoff walk, Brandon Gagliardi drove in Greg Cummings with a double to center. Mike Ferreira followed with an RBI single to make it 2-0. After a MacKinnon base hit, Mike McMillan drove in the third run. Andrew Mancini, the senior catcher, broke the game open with a triple to left-centerfield that scored two runs and made it 5-0.

The Tigers added one more on a double steal in the second and then tacked on a seventh run in the third on a MacKinnon sacrifice fly to right. Duggan called it the best offensive inning of the season for the Oliver Ames.

He added, “We’re usually behind people. Today was the first time that we’ve been out in front all year. We usually wait until the bottom of the fifth to start doing well. They had good swing, which we’ve been trying to stress.”

MacKinnon, who had struck out 14 of the 15 hitters he had faced in five previous relief appearances, was dominant early in the game. He struck out the side in the first inning on nine pitches, but as he got into the fifth inning he was clearly tiring and the Panthers (7-3, 6-3) started to take advantage.

Chris Roche led off the inning with a single down the leftfield line, which was followed by a base hit to center by Drew Inglesi. Catcher Stephen Shea stepped up with a run-scoring double to right center to make it 7-1 and Inglesi would come home on a wild pitch. With runners at second and third and no outs, MacKinnon was able to bear down and get the middle of the order on strikeout, a weak grounder to third, and a pop-up to the catcher.

Franklin head coach Dave Niro called that an important turning point in the game.

“We never give up, but the last couple of game we just haven’t gotten the big hit,” he noted. “We had second and third and the two, three, and four hitters coming up and got nothing out of it. We could have been right back in it.”

Despite not getting runs out of the situation, the Panthers were energized by getting on the board and in the top of the sixth went right back to work.

Andrew Dean, who replaced Neal Hart in leftfield in the fourth inning, smashed a leadoff triple to straightaway center that would have been a homerun on just about any field with a fence. Bryan Abbott, who moved from first to the mound, singled Dean home and Roche drew a walk that chased Mackinnon from the game.

“David’s the best player in the Hockomock, I don’t care what anyone says,” said Duggan. “He just got a little tired and they came back. Give Franklin credit. Most teams would have folded, but they came back.”

Brendan Welch came in to pitch and retired the next two hitters, but Santucci doubled over the head of the leftfielder to score both Abott and Roche. Both runs were charged to MacKinnon. Welch struck out pinch hitter Pat O’Reilly, but Franklin were back in the game at 7-5.

That would not last long.

MacKinnon reached on an error to start the bottom of the sixth. Two batters later, Mancini ripped a grounder down the first base line that was ruled to have just gone over the bag and made it 8-5. A wild pitch moved him to third. On a swinging third strike, Franklin’s catcher Shea thought it may have bounced and started up the first base line with the ball. It left home open and Mancini took advantage to score another insurance run.

“Physical mistakes we can handle but mental ones we can’t,” said Niro. “You know, a catcher vacating home plate, a little pop-up that we missed, a double-play ball and no one covers second base, it’s little things like that.”

Duggan was thrilled with the win and gave credit to his opponents for making it a tough game after a tough start.

“That’s still a good team; anytime you beat Franklin it’s great,” he explained. “I think the kids hit the ball pretty well today and we played pretty well. It was great that we got two runs in the bottom of the sixth. We knew we had it after that.”

NATICK, Mass. — Tyler Buck called it a hitting pact between he and Brendan Skidmore. Whatever they want to call it, so far that promise to pick each other up as the three and four hitters for Franklin has worked pretty well so far.

The latest example came on Friday night.

Skidmore belted a clutch home run in the bottom of the seventh to extend the game and Buck put the finishing touches on a 4-3 victory over Lincoln-Sudbury (16-4) in the ninth inning with a walkoff double — which scored Skidmore — to take the first game of the Rich Pedroli Memorial Daily News Classic at John Carroll Complex at Mahan Field.

The two bring the power to the beginning of four straight Hockomock League All-Stars for the Panthers, a list that includes Bobby Chaiton and Reed Turgeon, and that oomph in the middle of the lineup was provided yet again.

“I love hitting behind (Skidmore) and I know he’s going to get on base most of the time,” said Buck, who went 1-for-5 with an RBI. “We have that thing where if he gets a hit then I have more confidence up at the plate. It’s just one of those things where we made a hit-pact together, so if he gets a hit then I got to get a hit too.”

The two connected on back-to-back shots in its pounding of Catholic Memorial earlier in the year and the combination combined for the only two extra-base hits on this afternoon.

“(We) have been feeding off of each other’s success,” said Skidmore. “When one is doing good then the other is doing good and he’s always picking me up in the four spot. It’s a great combination for us.”

In the bottom of the ninth, Skidmore reached with a single to left to put the go-ahead run on the board. Buck, who recorded four outs in hit previous four at-bats, jumped all over a 2-1 offering and sent what looked like a routine fly ball to left. The ball kept carrying and carrying and it glanced off the glove of the left fielder. Skidmore motored all the way around from first without a throw to score the game-winning run.

“I thought that was just a routine fly ball, but it just kept carrying and carrying,” said Panthers’ head coach Dave Niro. “It got over his head and we scored, thank God. We were running out of pitchers.

Skidmore was off on contact and didn’t hesitate as he rounded third.

“I just put my head down and go, especially with two outs going on contact,” said Skidmore. “That was huge.”

Skidmore Clutch: The Warriors held a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh and were two outs away from putting the finishing touches on a win. Skidmore, as he has done in several instances in his career, came away with one swing to continue things on a perfect night for baseball.

Skidmore worked the count to 3-2, and he smashed an offering over the left-center field wall to tie things at 3.

“I was getting a lot of offspeed pitches today,” said Skidmore. “I worked the count to a full count and I was thinking fastball but ready for a curveball because they were dropping them on me all day. But he threw me a fastball and it just seemed to carry on that one.”

Skidmore was recently named the Hockomock League MVP and his coach has enjoyed the fruits of the recent clutch ness from his power-hitting shortstop.

“What can I say about Skidmore? He did it last year. He did it against CM. He did it again today,” said Niro. “That’s why he is the MVP of the Hockomock League.”

Up and Down Day in the Field: The Warriors have made a living off of other team’s miscues in the field, at the plate and on the base paths. This game saw those mistakes fall on the feet of Kirk Fredericks group.

The Warriors made two errors that led to a run in the first inning for the Panthers. They ran into an out at third base, and Buck picked off David McCullough on first base. The left-fielder was able to get the glove on a tough play going away from him on the game-winner, but usually those are things that defending Div. 1 champions gobble up without a blink.

“They play hard. They work at it, it’s just today we gulped a little bit,” Fredericks said of his team. “Hopefully we can take it as a learning experience and help us for the next time.”

Although the miscues might be the underlying story of the loss for the Warriors, there were a few highlight plays, most notably the one by Jack Harris in right. With the bases loaded and nobody out in the fourth, Bryan Abbott hit a shot down the right field line and Harris was playing him not to pull. The speedy right-fielder hustled after the ball, went into a dive and scooped the ball just before it hit the ground to hold the Panthers to a sacrifice fly on the play.

If the ball got by Harris, the Warriors were looking at a 2-1 game turning into a much larger deficit.

FRANKLIN, Mass. — Tyler Buck got all the run-support that he needed in Franklin’s 11-2 win over Catholic Memorial yesterday on a sunny afternoon at home.

Turns out the lefthander didn’t need all that much.

Buck scattered six hits and only allowed two earned runs in the first inning as he mowed through the Knights’ lineup for a complete-game victory and the Panthers' 13th in a row. Buck struck out seven and only allowed two men to reach second base in his final six innings on the mound.

“He’s our leader,” said Panthers head coach Dave Niro. “He lost the first game, and now we’ve won 13 in a row. We’ve got three good pitchers and we’ve got a solid defense. We are rolling right now and hopefully we didn’t peak too early.”

The Knights (8-5) were able to tack on two runs in the bottom of the first on a seeing-eye single up the middle by Todd MacDonald and a pickle between second and first that brought home a run. The balls that were hit off Buck weren’t hit all that hard and were placed in perfect positions, which could have wavered the confidence of the Panthers’ starter.

“Those things are the kind of things you can’t prevent as a pitcher,” said Buck. “When you are out there and you see that happen it’s like why is this happening to me? But you’ve just got to shake it off. I know my defense is great behind me, and I know I have what it takes to beat these kinds of teams. That’s the mentality to you need to have going into a game like this.”

Buck settled in nicely and he did so with the help of his curveball. He used the pitch on five of his seven strikeouts, and used the hook effectively against right-handed hitters to either freeze them or make them swing over the top of the pitch.

“I really care about mixing it up and making sure they don’t know what is coming next,” said Buck. “It’s definitely my fastball-curveball combination that is helping me. (CM) is used to seeing pitchers with good velocity, so I used (the curveball) a lot more and they were rolling over on it.”

Skidmore Likes Catholic Conference: Brendan Skidmore sure does like hitting against maybe the premier conference in all of Eastern Massachusetts. Last year as a junior, the Panthers’ shortstop beat Xaverian with a late home run, but this showing might have been a little bit better.

Skidmore went deep twice, once with a grand slam and the other with a solo shot in his final at-bat, to finish the day 4-for-4 with five RBI. He showed off most of his power with blasts to left field, but also went the other way with a sharp single through the right side to come up a triple shy of the cycle.

“They are always great teams to play and we really get pumped up for these kind of games,” said Skidmore.

Not A Bad Fill-In: It wasn’t the way the Panthers would have liked to start their first at-bats when leftfielder Neal Hart fouled a 2-2 pitch off his right leg and had to leave the game. Brad Padula came in to finish off the at-bat and only saw one pitch as he was caught looking.

His second time up was a little bit more like it for Niro. Padula fouled off four pitches and worked a one-out walk to load the bases after seeing 10 pitches. The next batter was Skidmore, who took the fist pitch he saw out for the game changing grand-slam.

“Brad’s a first year player,” said Niro. “He got cut the first two years. He’s come a long way. He’s swinging it at practice and he’s been swinging it pretty good. Brad is our backup left-fielder and we aren’t afraid to use him.”

Niro said Hart had a bad bruise on his right leg and is day-to-day.

FRANKLIN, Mass. -- Entering the bottom half of the ninth inning with the game tied, 7-7, Franklin's Cam Flateau calmly squared up and took the third pitch from Oliver Ames reliever David MacKinnon square off his right shoulder.

“The first pitch was right at my head, and I was a little afraid of that one," Flateau said. "But I just knew that he wasn’t going to get a strike to me because I was on his plate, so I did the best I could, and got hit."

Franklin head coach Dave Niro swapped Flateau for Brad Padula, who managed to reach second base one batter later following a suicide squeeze by Joe Palazini.

Padula then finished his trip around the base path when Marc Mele, the third batter of the inning, connected on Mackinnon’s third pitch. That drove home the game-winning run for Franklin (3-1), completing a thrilling 8-7 comeback over the Tigers.

“The first pitch was kind of close, a little low, and I thought it might have been a strike," Mele said. "The second one, I tried to see it better, and the third one I just cocked back, and got ready.".

Said Niro, “We never quit. Baseball’s a great game, and that’s why we play it like this.”

OA (4-1) earned a 2-0 lead to start the game in the top half of the first inning when Matt Harding cleared the bases with an RBI triple, which sent Mike McMillan and Mackinnon to the dish.

Franklin’s starting pitcher Bobby Chaiton recovered by retiring five of the next six batters he faced, before the Panthers' offense recorded three runs on five hits in the bottom half of the second inning.

“Bobby did a great job for us. He’s been struggling a little bit at the beginning of the year, but he did a great job [after he settled down],” said Niro.

Hits from Chaiton, Palazini and Reed Turgeon provided the Panthers with a 3-2 lead. But OA erased that in the top of the sixth, first with a single from Brad Fleming then an RBI triple from Harding.

The Tigers added to their lead one inning later when Jim Sullivan, McMillan and Mackinnon touched all four bases to give OA a 7-3 advantage entering the bottom half of the seventh inning.

Bryan Abbott began Franklin’s final frame when he connected on a 2-2 pitch from OA’s starter, David Holmes, which jump-started a Panthers four-run rally that sent the game to extra innings.

“I missed a pitch earlier during my at bat that I thought I should have hammered in the gap, so I found myself down, 2-2 and I just got a pitch in the zone that I got around on it, and hit it to right field, a nice little single,” said Abbott.

Entering the top of the eighth, Mele retired three consecutive OA batters, before Franklin loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom half of the inning. The Panther bats attempted to bring home the winning run on third, but Mackinnon managed force Tyler Buck and Chaiton to ground out, and then Turgeon to pop out to center field.

“I was trying to stay calm and throw strikes,” Mele said of his final two innings on the bump. “I didn’t want to let the first batter on because I never leave stranding good.”

Mele repeated his eighth inning performance in the ninth by retiring three more OA batters before he recorded the game-winning RBI that earned Franklin their third victory of the season.

“Marc [Mele] just did a heck of a job for a sophomore,” exclaimed Niro. “You can’t ask for anything better [because] he held them scoreless, and got the winning it.”

“It was a really good high school game that was played out on the field, and we just couldn’t put them away,” OA head coach Leo Duggan said. “I thought we did a nice job in the eighth when they had the bases loaded and nobody out. We didn’t come up with any hits in the ninth, and they [managed] to get it through, so give them credit.”

LOWELL, Mass. -- The clock has finally struck midnight on Franklin's magical, even Cinderella-ish run through the Division 1 tournament.

Lincoln-Sudbury's bats struck often and early, to the tune of 20 total hits, as they cruised to a 16-2 win over the Panthers (16-9) at Alumni Field to make their third state final appearance in seven seasons.

The Warriors (23-4) will face Western Mass champion Minnechaug -- themselves a surprise contender, entering the postseason a No. 10 seed at 10-10 but winning five straight -- Saturday at Lynn's Fraser Field for the state title.

"We hit the ball very well," L-S head coach Kirk Fredericks said. "We took advantage of and used a lot of the things we practice all the time, to get up on them and work some things in, which is great."

L-S wasted little time getting on the scoreboard in the top of the first inning, with senior catcher Mike Barry (2 for 4, four RBI) driving in Carl Anderson with a sacrifice fly to left field out of the cleanup spot. Keith Anderson (3 for 4, three RBI) and Ricky Antonellis (2 for 4) each drove in a run in the next two at bats to make it 3-0.

Then in the fourth, already ahead 5-0, the Warriors exploded for five more to blow this thing wide open, with Keith Anderson, Ryan Bassinger and Barry all driving in runs. Barry then made it 12-0 in the fifth, blasting an 0-2 curveball over left.

"I thought they were going to throw me a curveball, and I guess I got a good piece of it," Barry said.

Said Fredericks of Barry, "Michael's been struggling a little bit when we've been taking batting practice, I was concerned that his technique was a little off. But in games, he brings it right home." Asked to elaborate on what techniques, Fredericks simply said, "That's between Michael and myself."

The Warriors beat Worcester Tech for the Division 2 title in 2005, and Algonquin two seasons later for the D1 crown. Based on a snapshot of tonight, one has to like their chances for a third title.

Like the Panthers one day earlier in their walkoff win over Xaverian for the South crown, L-S demonstrated mature plate instincts, balance patience and aggression at the right times. Adam Ravenelle, Dan Cellucci and Brian Carroll (two RBI) also drove in runs to help the effort.

All of it made the job for its starter, Bryant-bound senior lefty Carl Anderson, that much more comfortable. In five innings of work, he Anderson struck out four batters, allowed four hits and gave up one earned run. Five pitchers combined for the final four innings of relief.

"I don't think Carl will tell you, but I'm sure he's sore," Fredericks said. "He had to pitch on three days' rest during the tournament, through five innings...And I'd betcha if we're in the state championship and we need another inning or two, he'd come on too. So, Carl has been an awesome player at Lincoln-Sudbury, and he'll continue to be until the end."

After such a dramatic win less than 24 hours earlier, Franklin head coach Dave Niro's fears of a day-after letdown came true.

"It's tough to get up two days in a row," Niro said. "We're coming off a big emotional win yesterday. I could tell on the bus ride up that we're gonna come out flat. The guys usually have a lot of energy coming to games, they're usually pretty loose. But today [it] was real quiet on the bus ride up, and I kinda thought we didn't have much energy left."

Surely, the Panthers were without key arms used in yesterday's win, leaving junior lefty Tyler Buck with the start after throwing 166 pitches in his start in last week's D1 South quarterfinals against BC High, a 17-6 win. Buck was knocked out of the game with one out in the third, with the score already well in hand at 8-0.

"I don't know if they [the team] knew that, but I knew that," Fredericks said when asked about Buck's 166-pitch start. "And as the rain kept coming and moving games back, it worked to our disadvantage, because it gives him more rest.

"But I talked to BC High, who played them, and got a pretty good scouting report on what he had, and what to do against him. Our kids executed, and did a great job."

BRAINTREE, Mass. -- The scouting report on talented Xaverian sophomore Austin DeCarr, clocked as fast as 91 miles per hour this spring, demands detail. So with the 6-foot-2 fireball of a reliever coming on in the seventh to preserve a lead in this Division 1 South final at Braintree High, and confusing the Franklin bats with his curve, head coach Dave Niro told his Panthers to sit and challenge the singular pitch that has begun the prose from scouts.

With a tie game in the bottom of the ninth, Sam Skidmore heeded the advice. With one out and no runners on in the bottom of the ninth, he sat until the sixth pitch, where he got his desired look -- a high, 3-2 two-seam fastball clocked at 87 miles per hour -- and cranked one of those shots that looked destined for the trees behind the left-centerfield fence as soon as it left the bat.

The Franklin dugout immediately emptied into a frenzy, Skidmore was mobbed and then pig-piled as he crossed home plate, and this most unheralded -- not to mention surprising -- run lives another day. The Panthers (16-8) left with a 6-5 win over the Hawks (15-10) to take the Division 1 South title and advance to Wednesday night's state semifinal against North champion Lincoln-Sudbury.

"These guys never give up," Niro said, as chants of "Skid the Kid!" echoed in the background. "When we first put this team together, we were saying, you know, 'I don't even think we're going to win 10 games this year'. But these guys never quit. They started out 2-3, but man, we won some games and put some things together."

Few, if any, could have seen this coming. The Panthers came into the tournament a No. 9 seed at 12-8, but having lost four of six (including a 5-2 decision to tomorrow night's opponent). And at that, they were considered maybe the fourth or fifth best team in their own league, behind fellow D1 South contenders North Attleborough and Mansfield, and D2 state title favorite Oliver Ames -- all three of which, by the way, making first-round exits this postseason.

Even less, perhaps, can pinpoint the "when" on this sudden jolt. But the consensus is clear on the "what" -- plate discipline.

The same team that plated 15 runs in the first three innings of June 8th's semifinal win over BC High was the same team that struggled to connect for three or four hits just a month earlier. This afternoon, the Panthers got nine hits off the Xaverian staff, and drew an additional six walks.

"Every day at practice, we work on situational hitting," Niro said. "That's what we did, we did a lot of hitting with these guys, and they never quit. They want to practice every day, they don't want to stop, just come in every day and hit, get a great run."

Said Franklin hitting coach Steve Lerner, "They're doing the things we've been trying to tell them lately. They've been keeping their shoulder in, they're going the opposite way if it's outside. They're just on a roll. It's awesome. It's fun."

Against the Hawks' defense, the Panthers were aggressive on the base paths, making the most of their appereances, highlighted by Reed Turgeon. The junior went 3 for 3 -- all for singles, and each time following up by stealing second base. The rally was also aided by Jon Skaza's two-run single in the fifth, followed by a walk dawn by Tim Garvey in the seventh that scored Tyler Buck to make it 5-5.

But at the crux of it all today was Skidmore, the No. 5 hitter, who was 0 for 4 with two strikeouts (both looking) before pelting out the 370-foot shot that won't be forgotten around Oak Street for quite some time.

"The second I hit it, I knew it was gone. It's a great feeling," Skidmore said of his shot. "It was unbelievable. Best feeling I've ever had."

This spring season of baseball has been the year of the unusual, and perhaps there was no better statement on the hill for Franklin than junior Bobby Chaiton. The 5-foot-10 righty worked the Xaverian bats with his sharp curve and unorthodox, Okajima-like delivery, a three-quarter arm slot that sometimes left him looking straight down at the ground when released.

In seven innings of work, he allowed five hits and four runs over seven innings, while his Xaverian counterpart Nick Ahearn allowed four runs and seven hits before giving way to DeCarr in the seventh. Senior Kevin Garry came on to relieve Chaiton in the eighth, just his fourth appearance of the season, and didn't allow a runner past second base.

"Against Walpole (in the quarterfinals), he did a heck of a job," Niro said of Garry. "We brought him in today, and he did another outstanding job for us. He's a great kid, and I'm so happy for him."

Xaverian head coach Gerry Lambert commended the Panther bats for the way they battled.

"Sometimes they put a swing on one. I mean, they're a good team, too," he said. "And they're on a roll right now, they've won a lot of games in a row. They had a couple of big hits with two outs early in the game, that kept this game close, and then the swat there at the end."

ICE TIME

What's a championship celebration without a water dunk? We managed to catch Niro in the middle of the act, as his team ambushed him with a ceremonial water jug.

Here he is, pre-dunk:



And, post-dunk: