By Mike Rubin

The Somerville District 12 Little League squad couldn’t find its groove in the opening round of the District tournament.

Brandon Bunker blasted a three run home run as the Medford National squad stopped Somerville in a tough 8-2 defeat in Thursday night’s match-up at Columbus Park.

Somerville will now enter the loser’s bracket and will face its next opponent at a date and time to be determined.

After Bunker nailed a three-run blast, Anthony DiRenzo increased the lead to 4-0, capitalizing off a throwing error.

Facing a 4-0 deficit, Somerville ace Mike McPhearson settled into a grove striking out two batters to round out the inning in escaping further damage.

On the mound, Bunker was also effective, scattering just five hits through five and two-thirds innings of work. Bunker also walked two and struck out six, continuing to frustrate Somerville bats.

Battling back, Somerville closed the gap to 4-1 as Jack Clark, who reached base, managed to score on an RBI groundout by Kyle Gil.

Any hopes of momentum for Somerville quickly fell behind the wayside as Kyle Lynch plated an RBI triple, increasing the lead to 5-1 before Bunker and DiRenzo secured the win, nailing consecutive doubles in the fourth en route to a 7-1 lead.

In the later innings, Somerville managed to push across another run as Justin Barry delivered an RBI fielder’s choice to knock in Matt McCune.

Earning the save for Medford was Anthony Pineda, who registered the final out, striking out Somerville’s last batter to end a scoring threat in the top of the sixth.