The NEAA Senior Dodgers opened up the 19u wood bat tournament sweeping a doubleheader from the East Boston Eagles by scores of 8-1 and 12-0. The Dodgers, who haven’t played a game since their championship victory on August 5th did not look like a rusty team. Playing their first game with wood bats they scored early and often and the nasty pitching from Bilikas and Martignetti along with the Dodgers customary lockdown defense helped the team cruise to an easy 2-0 start. Game one’s hitting heroes were Bobby Mello who was 2 for 3 with 2 rbi and a run scored, Greg Bilikas who was 2 for 4 with 2 rbi and a run scored and newcomer Mark Fusco who drove in the first Dodger run and finished 2 for 4 with 2 rbi. The Dodgers also got offensive contributions from Mike Martignetti with a hit, 2 walks and a run scored, Ryan Carvalho with a hit, a walk and a run scored and newcomer Joan Figueroa with a hit, a walk and a run scored. But the story of the game was Bilikas as he blazed his way to a 12 strikeout, 1 hit complete game.
Game two pretty much picked up where game one left off. The Dodgers scored 12 unanswered runs and beat East Boston in a 5 inning mercy rule shortened 12-0 game. Offensively the Dodgers were led by Joan Figueroa with 2 hits, an rbi and a run scored, Ryan Carvalho with 2 hits, a walk, an rbi and a run scored, Mike Martignetti with 2 hits a walk and a run scored, Greg Bilikas with 2 hits and 2 runs scored and Ricky Martignetti who was 2 for 2 with 2 runs scored. Once again however Dodger pitching made this easy as Mike Martignetti faced 14 batters in 4 innings allowing only one hit and striking out 4. Mike crusied through his 4 innings throwing only 50 pitches. Mark Fusco mopped up with a hitless 5th inning before the game was called due to the lopsided score. Coaches Ralph Martignetti and Steve Passatempo were very happy with the opening day effort but stated they expected a much tougher tussel next Saturday when the Dodgers face their arch-rivals the South End Astros at 1:30 at Jefferson Park in Jamaica Plain.
More information on NEAA Baseball can be found at NEAABaseball.org.
