The Somerville Alibrandis earned a spot in the semifinals after defeating the South Boston Saints in a best-of-five series.

By Benjamin Klein

The Somerville Alibrandis opened the 2012 Yawkey Baseball League playoffs as the No.1 seed and have advanced to the semifinals after winning a best-of-five series against the No.8 South Boston Saints.

Somerville completed the regular season with a league-leading 25 wins in order to claim the top spot in the playoffs. South Boston was one of the few teams that was able to defeat the Alibrandis during the year, but Somerville wouldn’t have any of that once the postseason started. The Alibrandis would win three straight games to eliminate the Saints.

The Somerville pitching staff gave them a big boost in the series opener, as Jon Morse pitched six shutout innings and Brian Tanguy threw a perfect seventh. The Alibrandis scored runs in the first and third innings to take a 2-0 lead that was more than enough for the aforementioned duo. Mike Maguire had three hits and scored a run in the victory.

Somerville would see a similar result the next night in Game 2 of the series. Chris Foundas was the star on the mound, throwing 5.2 innings without allowing a run and Tanguy pitched the remainder of the game, keeping the Saints off of the scoreboard. Somerville’s lone run came in the bottom of the fourth inning when Mark Annese drove in Marc DesRoches. The 1-0 win put the Alibrandis in a great position to advance. All they had to do was win one of the next three games to eliminate South Boston.

The Alibrandis wouldn’t waste any extra time as they defeated the Saints 2-1 to win the series. Anthony Del Prete threw a gem for Somerville, only allowing two hits and one unearned run over seven innings of work. Del Prete also struck out nine Saints during the complete game. Maguire and Sal Mendonca scored the two Somerville runs that helped them advance to the semifinals.

Somerville will take on the No.6 Stoneham Sabers in a best-of-five series next week for a chance to advance to the YBL championship series. The Alibrandis defeated Stoneham two-of-three times this season, but the Sabers got the best of Somerville just over a week ago. The sound pitching of Somerville will be the biggest factor as they progress through the playoffs.