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Tough
stretch
for TriTown
AL teams
By Ron P. Coderre
One of the most difficult things to do each summer is to get the American Legion Baseball program off the ground. Players face conflicting schedules that include graduations and other year end school activities, making it difficult to get everyone on the field at the same time. Despite those inconveniences, it’s hard to fathom that the season is already approaching the mid-way point.
The TriTown Sr. team has to be the tough luck team of Zone VI. Looking at its record of 1-11 and on a nine game losing streak the Towners look like the worst team in the Zone. But looks are sometimes deceiving.
Wins Hard to Come By for Srs.
The team composed of players from Putnam, Tourtellotte, Woodstock , Marianapolis and Ellis Tech has been in every one of its games. As coach Paul Faucher has been known to say, “They need to learn how to close,” the team could have more than one win if they could put the finishing touches on the game.
In recent action they started the week dropping a pair 2-1 and 10-4 to Norwich in the Rose City. In the lid lifter Garret Ponte, who’s been stellar on the mound all season suffered the loss. Tim Cutler delivered a double as TriTown outhit Norwich five to three. In the second game Norwich jumped out to a 6-0 lead after three innings icing the contest. Kyle Tyler suffered the loss.
In a game against archrival Danielson, the TriTown entry jumped out to a 2-0 first inning lead before the home team Danielson knotted the score at two apiece in the third inning. The winning run came on a bases loaded suicide squeeze in the bottom of the seventh. The irony of the situation is that Danielson was able to load the bases without a hit in this tough loss. Josh Malboeuf (0-3), who has pitched well all season, suffered the loss, while Cutler once again contributed a double.
Against Waterford, one of the better teams in the Zone, the team suffered consecutive losses on two different nights. They were shutout 5-0 after falling behind four zip in the first inning. Ty Anderson (0-3) suffered the setback, while Cutler continued his hot hitting contributing a double along with Mike Thienel who also had a two bagger.
In its final game of the week, the Towners suffered a hard to swallow defeat at home against this same Waterford team 7-6. TriTown jumped out to a 6-0 lead after three stanzas but lost the game when the visitors tallied four runs in the fifth and three in the seventh to go home with the victory. Tim Cutler was the hard luck loser. Thienel and Ryan Gadoury each had doubles for TriTown.
Jrs. Fade Following Fast Start
After jumping out to a 4-0 start at the beginning of the season, the TriTown Jr. Team suffered four consecutive losses. The losing streak dropped the Jrs. from the top of the Zone into third place 2.5 games below Zone leader New London.
In its only game of the week the Jr. Towners were dropped by Norwich in a nail biter 2-1. Nick Foucault was the losing pitcher despite holding Norwich to just four hits. He aided his cause with a double. The team is 4-4 entering the second half stretch of the season.