The second half of the season began Wednesday, July 6, 2011 with the Knights dropping a disappointing rain shortened game, 7 to 0, against Medford. The Medford Maddogs have not lost since the Knights no-hit them in May to win 9 in a row.
Thursday, July 7th was a little nicer to the Knights as they beat rival Revere Rockies 2 to 1. The East Boston Knights defeat the Revere Rockies 2 to 1 in a crisp played game between both teams.
The Knights rode the arm of Josh Valerio who threw a 4 hit gem and outdueled Rockies hurler Rich Wlodarczyk. The Knights plated a run in the first on an Omar Ortiz single to right that scored Tyler Higgins. Higgins, set up the run by stealing his league leading 15th base.
The Knights scored another in the 4th on a Ben McBride double that scored Ace DiNapoli from first that gave the Knights a 2 – 0 advantage. The Rockies answered in the 5th with a run of their own and that is all they would score.
The Rockies made it interesting in the 7th with the tying run at 2nd with 2 outs but Josh Valerio shut the door and preserved the victory for the Knights. Valerio moves to 2 – 0 on the season.
Saturday, July 9th, the Knights came out flat in Southie against the Brighton Minutemen and lost 10 to 4. The Knights could not hit with runners on base and defense was shaky.
On Sunday, The East Boston Knights win a close one against the South Boston Saints at King Field. Knights’ starter Branden Eaton was sharp in this one going all seven innings for the win. Higgins got the offense going for the Knights in the 1st with a single and added to his stolen base lead to set up a sac fly from Chris Dowd to give the Knights a 1 – 0 lead.
The Saints would answer back in the bottom of the inning with a Steve Busby homerun that knotted the game at 2. The score would stay that way until the 6th when Dowd stepped to the plate and launched his 4th Yawkey League homerun to give the Knights a 2 – 1 lead.
The Saints did not go away however, in the bottom of the 7th with runners on first and second with two out, Southies’ Larocque singled to left and Dowd fired a strike to 3b Ace DiNapoli who relayed the ball home for the final out of the game.
The Knights’ win against Southie propelled them into first place in their division.