Spencer on fire
Anderson unbeaten for Brighton Braves
AMATEUR BASEBALL
In the history of major league baseball, several pitchers have burst upon the scene, winning eight, nine or more of their initial career starts. Hooks Wiltse is probably the trailblazer, breaking out to 12 consecutive wins in 1904. More recently, Whitey Ford (9-0 in 1950), Fernando Valenzuela (10-0 in 1980-81) and the Red Sox’ Boo Ferris (8-0 in 1946) come to mind.
This summer, the same accolades fall on Brighton Braves twirler Spencer Anderson.
The hard-throwing lefty is off to a 4-0 start, dazzling opposing Yawkey League batsmen with 21 strikeouts, a 2.13 earned run average in 261⁄3 innings. Over his twoyear career, Anderson is 10-0 with a 1.80 ERA in 581⁄3 innings with 47 punchouts and only 15 earned runs allowed.
The 6-foot-1 Anderson is just as gifted off the diamond. Anderson graduated from Newton North High School and now attends Skidmore College, where he is a member of the Thoroughbred Society, a group of student-athletes with a 3.67 grade-point average or higher. Just as impressive is that Anderson is a classical violinist and an Italian language tutor.
“He’s an amazing kid. He’s a real renaissance man. He does it all. He’s going to be one of our captains next year. I can’t say enough good things about the kid,’’ Skidmore baseball coach Ron Plourde said. “We had a new pitching coach (Mike McFerran) this year and Spencer absorbed everything and put it together on the field. He pitched very well for us and I don’t think we gave him the proper run support that he deserved. His first couple of years he just got better with all the parts of his game. This year he really took off. Every outing was a quality outing.”
Johnson slugfest
One recent game of note was a 13-4 win by the McKay Club Beacons over the Savin Hill Dodgers in which the Beacons pounded out 19 hits, led by Justin Johnson, who went 4-for-4 and scored three times. On the season, Johnson is 17-of39 (.436) with six RBI . . . .
There was a nifty pitching duel as Charlestown Townies right-hander Bill Sullivan (2-0) tossed seven innings, allowing one run on four hits and fanning four to edge McKay, 2-1. McKay’s Cam Beaulieu went five innings, giving up three hits in the loss . . . .
Nice effort turned in by left-hander Kyle Autilio, who threw six innings of four-hit ball, with righty Jamie Weiss picking up the save as the Melrose Americans edged Malden Maddogs, 4-2. John Jennings keyed the offense with three hits, and Will Shackelford had two hits and a pair of RBI.
Teams are often only as good as their bullpen and the Andre Chiefs proved as much when lefty Evan Walsh threw five innings of one-hit relief, posting seven K’s and retiring 13 in a row at one point, as the Chiefs rallied to a 6-2 win against Watertown Reds.
Pennant race is on
The Boston Park League, America’s oldest amateur baseball league, is fast becoming a two-horse race between front-runner Boston Athletics (13-2) and the pursuing ADSL (12-2-1). The Athletics have scored 131 runs, a figure surpassed only by third-place Towne Club (9-6-0) with 145. The Athletics and Towne share a league-best .349 team batting average, and the Athletics’ Matt Rodriguez paces the Park League with 25 RBI . . . .
The league’s top hitter is Rosario Missiti of the Cannon Club, who’s tearing it up at .500 on 26-of-52 at the plate. He also paces the league in hits (26) and is tied with ADSL’s Eddie Riley in runs scored with 19. On the pitching side, the ADSL right-handed duo of Bobby Tramondozzi (3-0) and Nick Kinsella (2-0) are the lone hurlers with ERAs below 1.00, Kinsella at 0.84 and Tramondozzi at 0.95. Righty Greg Tobin of defending league champion TJO Sports has struck out 40, an average of 1.45 SOIP, second-best in the league to Palmer Club righty Chris Anderson (1.47).