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Sports

Blue Sox Lock Up Fourth Straight Intercity League Title

Championship is team's eighth in its 16-year history.

Champagne rained down on the Lexington Blue Sox for the fourth straight year. Just like manager Rick DeAngelis had planned.

Despite their history of success, this year's Blue Sox were never expected to win every game. They weren't even expected to put up eye-popping numbers. But DeAngelis did expect his team to come out on top when it mattered most.

Lexington did that Wednesday night in winning another Intercity League championship.

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"Winning never gets old," DeAngelis said. "We built this baseball team to win a championship. It wasn't built to go undefeated. It was built to win a championship and we did everything that we had to do."

The Blue Sox celebrated a title for the eighth time in their 16-year history after beating the Watertown Reds 7-1 at Lexington High School Wednesday night to sweep the final series.

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It was the first time in the team's four-year run that it locked up the title at home.

"It's pretty exciting," said center fielder Peter Frates, who has been with the club for three of the titles. "You show up to the field ahead 2-0 (in the series), having just won 13-1 (in Game 2) and think it's going to be easy, but we had to battle."

DeAngelis suffered the mandatory bath from the water cooler and the Blue Sox posed for yet another championship team photo. The party really got started when a case of bubbly was brought out to the celebration.

It was star right fielder Dan Graham who loosened the first cork.

Down 1-0 for most of the game, Watertown battled back to tie the score in the top of the sixth inning. Lexington came back in the bottom of the frame with an offensive assault that assured the Blue Sox the title.

Frates set the stage with a leadoff single and steal of second base. He moved to third on Ross Curley's flyout. Steve Gath followed with a walk.

There had been rumblings throughout the season that this was it for the two-time MVP Graham. He joined the team late and saw a dip in his offensive numbers.  All that was forgotten after he smacked a ground-rule double to left field that plated Frates and put the Blue Sox ahead for good, kicking off a six-run rally.

After the game, Graham, 34, confirmed that he was leaning heavily toward walking away. His commitments to his 12-week-old twins and duties as Lowell High baseball coach have become too great.

"I won't completely slam the door shut, but I'm heavily, heavily (leaning towards retirement)," Graham said. "I just don't have the time anymore to put in the work to stay at the level I want to be at. I'm 34, it's been a good run and I've been going after it since I was 6 or 7 years old."

There's no question what the Blue Sox will lose without him in the lineup. Graham's first year with the club was 2007, which also started its magical run.

"Let's put it this way: four championships in four years," DeAngelis said. "He's the best position player I've ever had the privilege of coaching."

Added Frates, "It's just a pleasure to watch him play. I try to tell all the young guys to watch what he does on and off the field. He does the right thing every time."

But certainly none of that was talked about while the Blue Sox celebrated. They were all but assured another championship when Ben Hewett, Eric Poling and Matt McEvoy all followed Graham with singles that produced four more runs for the Blue Sox.

McEvoy put the finishing touches on the win when he scored on an error by Watertown second baseman Luke Begley.

Lexington starter Marc Hewett slammed the door on the Reds by striking out the side in the seventh. Hewett was excellent in the complete-game effort. He had a no-hitter entering the sixth and wound up giving up just two hits to go with his 11 strikeouts.

"It's awesome," Graham said of adding another championship. "Rick has done a great job of building a quality program, organization, whatever you want to call it. The expectation every year is to finish in first place, get ourselves to the playoffs and win a championship. That's what it's all about."

Poling was named the most outstanding player of the playoffs. He hit .529 with three runs and seven RBIs, including four in the last two games, to go with a .706 slugging percentage. As the primary catcher, Poling had six assists and picked off two baserunners.

On Tuesday, the Blue Sox crept closer to the title with a 13-1 thrashing of the Reds at Watertown's Victory Field. The Blue Sox set league playoff highs in runs (13), hits (14), tied for RBI (11), total bases (15) and walks (nine). They had scored 13 total runs in the playoffs entering Game 2.

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