Somerville’s Alibrandis are well positioned to enter the Yawkee Baseball League playoffs as top contenders for the title.

By Benjamin Klein

There’s just one week and four games before the Somerville Alibrandis will enter the Yawkey Baseball League playoffs as one of the top seeds. It has been a great season for Somerville, but they still have some work to do before they can call themselves the champions for the second straight season.

July was one of Somerville’s most impressive months and they closed it out with two wins, one over the Malden Bulldogs and one over the Stoneham Sabers. They also opened August on a high note with a victory over the South End Astros.

Somerville’s pitching led them to victory over Malden last Monday as Sean Sullivan pitched six innings of one-run baseball while walking three and striking out four. Brian Tanguy picked up his second save of the season with a perfect seventh inning. Bobby Barrett and Stan DeMartinis each had three hits and Barrett and Mike Maguire each scored twice for the Alibrandis in the 4-1 win.

The Alibrandis would ride their offense in their next match-up that only ended up being six innings due to poor weather conditions. Somerville opened with a run in the first inning and then tacked on seven in the second inning to take a commanding 8-2 lead. Justin Crisafulli hit a home run and Maguire drove in two run in Somerville’s 8-3 victory over Stoneham. Anthony Del Prete continued his hot streak on the mound with his third win of the year in six innings of work.

Somerville entered August with 21 wins, the most in the league and added another with a close, 4-1 win over the South End. Jon Morse threw six great innings that put Somerville in good position to take the game. The Alibrandis offense could only score four runs, but that would be enough for Morse and Tanguy, who picked up the save.

Somerville has already clinched a spot in the playoffs and could potentially be the No. 1 seed should they play well next week. The Alibrandis will play Monday and Tuesday against the Beacon Hill Dodgers, Friday against the Revere Rockies and Saturday against the Stoneham Stars in the regular season finale.