The first place Red Sox played their way into the NEAA Majors baseball finals shutting out the Indians 4-0 gaining a spot in the 2 out of 3 games Championship Series against the Regional Review Cubs who knocked off the favorite St. Agrippina Cardinals.
Five Red Sox pitchers, Lorenzo Pantaleo, Anthony Ruzzo, Timmy Martin, Ryan Santoro and Fortunado D’Ampolo combined for the 4-0 shutout.
Paul Szulc and Jase Cherchi pitched well for the Indians.
The Sox took the lead on a huge two-out 2 RBI triple by Santoro and RBI hits by D’Ampolo and Ruzzo.
The game saw four excellent defensive plays by Oliver Franklin and D’Ampolo for the Sox and Szulc and Cherchi for the Indians.
The Cubs edged the 2011 league championship team the Cardinals 4-3 to earn a spot in the playoff championship round.
Pitchers Fernando Soto, Michael Pittore and Coleman Shea did the job on the mound for the Cubs.
The Cards led 1-0 when the Cubs catcher Michael Troiano launched a solo homer out of the park tying the well played game at 1-1.
The Cubs took a 4-3 lead in the fifth pushing three runs across the plate.
Back came the Cards with two runs in cutting the lead to 4-3 with the tying run on base. The next Cardinal batter crushed a ball deep into the outfield that appeared it would tie the game for sure but Marcus Soto came out of nowhere to make the game saving catch. A last out ground ball put the Cubs in the finals.