Marauders Fall to Hot Wellesley Team on Diamond

This time of year when the cold wind continues to blow, baseball becomes a real challenge in New England.

Unless you play baseball for the Wellesley Raiders, who moved to 4-0 on the young season with an 11-4 win over the (3-2, 1-1) on a blustery Friday afternoon.

“We have a goal to win every single game we come out and play,” said Wellesley manager Rob Kane. 

Wellesley second baseman Brian McMahon opened up the floodgates in the first inning by singling off Dedham pitcher Mike Ryan. McMahon reached third on two passed balls, and later scored on an error, as the Wellesley hitters began to work the pitch count.

The Raiders continued to attack the Dedham defense with an RBI single by Stu Porter (4-for-5, two doubles four RBIs) to make it 3-0, followed up with a squeeze play by Alex Cohen to force home the fourth Raider run. A bases loaded walk made it 5-0 Wellesley after one.

“We are the type of team to put pressure on opposing teams,” said Kane, “ff we put pressure on, it allows us to open holes for our hitters.”

Ryan held Wellesley to one run in the second after a leadoff triple by Dan Domecki, and also one earned run in the third to make it 7-0 Wellesley.

“I thought Mikey pitched better than the results, thought he just missed some spots here and there," said Dedham manager Kevin Quaranto.

Wellesley’s pitcher Tim Superko was nothing less than super as can be expected with a name like that. He pitched four innings and only gave up two hits and fanned eight in his stint.

The lefty used his high fastball to get the Dedham Nine to swing at pitches out of the strike zone while keeping his breaking ball low in order to keep the ball on the ground.

“Trying to get ahead of hitters and throw strikes, “ said Superko after the game, "and try to keep the ball low and get them to hit it on the ground."

Dedham again relied on relief workhorse Chris Delouchrey to come in and shut the door and keep his team within striking distance.

“I just focus on throwing strikes,” said Delouchrey who threw 6 1/3 innings and gave up two earned runs while striking out nine.

“I thought Chris pitched great, he gave us a shot and that is all we can ask him to do,” added Quaranto.

In the end it was too much quality pitching by the Raiders and a well-executed running attack, which put pressure on Dedham’s backup catcher Cody Abbott, who replaced Matt Baron in the first after the junior injured his arm at the plate. 

“We were prepared for certain situations” said Quaranto, "they just executed perfectly."

The 4-0 Raiders have some big games heading into the April break against Medfield and a highly ranked Catholic Memorial team.

 “We’re pretty happy about (4-0), but obviously we need to stay hot,” said Superko.