American Legion playoffs: Shrewsbury starts title defense in style

WORCESTER — The past two summers for Shrewsbury Post 397 have been memorable to say the least — a pair of Zone 4 titles, a state championship in 2016, and a New England Regional championship last summer which sent Post 397 to their first-ever American Legion World Series appearance.

However, on Wednesday evening at Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field, it was back to square one for a talented Shrewsbury outfit looking to live up to its lofty expectations that its recent success has created.

And right on cue, second-seeded Shrewsbury answered the bell, cruising to a 12-2 win over seventh-seeded Framingham Post 74 in the opening round of a Zone 4 Samko Bracket B playoff.

Shrewsbury manager Frank Vaccaro said his team has built a winning culture over the past few seasons.

“Winning is an attitude and winning is a habit, like losing is,” he said. “These guys expect to win and they have to play to that level.”

Vaccaro also said that winning brings high expectations.

“There is lot of pressure on us because the last three years, we’ve won 62 games and lost 10 during the regular season and that’s because good players make good coaches,” he said. “They want to win and they really would love another chance to go to that World Series.”

With the win, Shrewsbury advances to Thursday's 5:15 p.m. winners' bracket matchup against Milford at Shrewsbury High School.

Framingham will look to keep its season alive in an elimination game at Cherry Valley.

Framingham (11-14) struck first in the top of the second, when Ryan Urato opened the inning with a single to left and scored on a fielder’s choice.

But Post 397 (22-3) responded right away in the second, batting around to score four runs.

Matt Sullivan, Dillon Zona and Louie Davolio all drew walks to load the bases with no outs. After Sullivan scored on a wild pitch, Tom Cue gave Shrewsbury a 2-1 lead with an RBI single to center. An RBI groundout by Pat Galvin made it 3-1, and Tyler Hopping capped off the rally with an RBI double to right for up 4-1 edge.

Shrewsbury tacked on five more in the fourth sparked by Matt Mattero getting hit by a pitch, and Nick Martin ripping a bases loaded two-run double to deep left to extend the Post 397 lead to 6-1.

“Honestly, I’m just looking for a fastball I can drive,” Martin said. “With the pitchers in this league, I have the confidence, I don’t think anyone can get a fastball by me.”

After Joe Mescall’s RBI double in the top of the fifth made it 9-2, Martin responded with an RBI double of his own in the bottom of the fifth for a 10-2 lead.

“Nicky Martin just continues to rake and he just loves to play the game,” Vaccaro said of his slugging catcher.

Meanwhile, Shrewsbury got an effective combined pitching performance from John West, Dylan Degon and Nick David.

West went three innings, giving up one run and striking out five. Degon went two, yielding just one run, and Nick David pitched the final two frames for Post 397.

“We lost a lot of kids (coming into) this year and we’re coming together and sticking together as a team,” Degon said. “You know you always have someone behind your back that would do anything for you and you’re going to do anything for them. It’s easy to win that way.”

—Contact Chris Kyne at sports@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @tgsports.