Saturday, August 6, 2011
Aghdam's Ninth-Inning Blast Keeps East Side Alive in Northeast Regional
Old Orchard Beach, ME --- Regan Aghdam belted home run to left field for what proved to be the game-winning run as East Side
eliminated Cranston-Auburn (RI) from the American Legion Baseball Northeast Regional on Saturday morning with an 8-7 victory.
Official word will come in the AM but it appears East Side (29-9) will play New Hampshire (only undefeated team in the tournament)
at 7pm tomorrow.
Cranston-Auburn (24-15) lit up the scoreboard in the bottom of the first as Mets draftee Jeffrey Diehl grounded out to help score the
first run of the game.
East Side tied the game up with a two-out moonshot by Ysander Figueroa in the fourth.
Post 20 responded in its half of the inning. Stephen Beneduce singled to bring in the go-ahead tally.
The Raiders went on a scoring spree in the fifth inning as they put six on the board. The left field line was kind to East Side as Aghdam
singled and Figueroa doubled. Each batter drove in a pair of runs. Steve Flynn singled to left plating Kyle Brenner, while Figueroa
crossed home plate on the play courtesy of a Post 20 miscue.
In the seventh, Cranston-Auburn inched closer as a run scored on a RBI ground out off the bat of Michael Hayden.
Post 20 tied the game up at 7-7 with four runs in the eighth. Robert Madonna scored on a wild pitch and a Raider miscue allowed
another run to score. Hayden singled in a pair of runners for the stalemate.
Aghdam then led off the ninth with the solo blast to score the game-winning run.
Figueroa picked up the win while also having a stellar day at the plate. Defensively, Figueroa gave up one hit in the final 1 1/3. At the dish,
the number five hitter went 3-for-3 with three RBI and two runs scored. Flynn surrendered seven runs - three earned - on 10 hits and
fanned three in the starting effort.
Six different hurlers saw time on the mound for Post 20. Hayden combined with John Razzino, Kyle Tracy, Ryan Faria, Richard Reo
and Jacob Ciolfi to strike out five batters.
Aghdam ended the day with a 2-for-5 outing while helping produce three runs and touching home plate twice. Leadoff man Bryan Perez
also had two hits in the contest.
Matthew Pagano led Cranston-Auburn with a 3-for-5 day, while the heart of the order, Hayden, Matthew McCool and Madonna
recorded two hits apiece. Razzino and Pagano each scored a pair of runs.
Box Score | Sunday's Live Stats | Photos
Editors Note: We apologize for the issue some of you may have had with live stats today. The button on the front page was not updated
with the correct link. Once we know which game East Side plays tomorrow, we will have the button pointing to the appropriate page as
well as on the schedule and the link on this page next to the box score.