By Ron P. Coderre

This week’s RPC sporty shoutout is sent along to Putnam resident and all around good guy Tom Longo.  A veteran of the U.S. Air Force, he now enjoys his spare time volunteering and helping other people.

When he was playing for Woodstock Academy Chris Mayhew was a standout on the baseball diamond as well as starring on the soccer field and basketball court.  Opting to continue his baseball career, Mayhew decided to attend  UConn at Avery Point and play for the highly respected coach of the Pointers, Roger Bidwell.  As Mayhew’s second and final year on the Groton campus is nearing, it appears that he made the correct choice.

Last week Mayhew was selected an NJCAA Division II Region XXI all star.  A first baseman, Mayhew has been wielding a hot bat for UCAP all season, following a strong performance as a first year player.

His play this spring has been a dominating factor in leading the Pointers to a return to the Eastern District Championships with the opportunity to return to the Nationals for the second year in a row.  Mayhew and his mates advanced thanks to taking a three-game series from Community College of Rhode Island.  After losing the first game of the series, Bidwell’s boys came back to take the final two games of the set.  They won the deciding game by a 4-2 score.

The Eastern District’s competition will be played at Rockland Community College.  The Pointers open play against Region XV Westchester Community College and follow that up with a contest against Region III representative Mercyhurst North East in the round-robin competition.

UConn Avery Point enters the round-robin with a sparkling 38-7 record.

Mayhew isn’t the only local product who’s enjoying success on the collegiate level.  Former Plainfield High School standout Nick Ververis is playing outstanding baseball for Eastern Connecticut State University, the 27-7 Warriors are vying for the Little East Conference championship where they are the top seed in the tournament.

The Warriors closed out the regular season with a doubleheader sweep of Southern Maine University by scores of 15-9 and 8-4.  Ververis had a banner day with a total of five hits in the twinbill.  His five hits accounted for five runs-batted-in and five runs scored on the day.

In games leading up to the season finale, Ververis enjoyed a game where he posted a three-run homer and four RBIs.  He also had an RBI single in a 4-1 win over MIT.  Eastern enters the conference competition winning 20 of its final 22 contests.

On a slightly different level, another former Plainfield baseball standout, Travis Beausoleil is enjoying a successful season as the coach of Mitchell College, which competes on the NCAA Division II level.  Mitchell, which became a four-year college in recent years, has had a meteoric rise on the diamond under the tutelage of Beausoleil.

Run for the Roses

Many folks develop “bucket lists” that often have attendance at sporting events such as the World Series, Super Bowl, Indianapolis 500 or the NCAA Final Four on the list.  Another popular “bucket list” event is The Kentucky Derby.

Woodstock residents Rick and Mary Place were fortunate to be among the crowd of more than 100,000 that was on hand in Louisville, Ky., on Saturday, May 3 to witness the 1 ¾ length victory posted by the overwhelming favorite California Chrome.

According to Rick Place,  it was exciting to be among the throng and witness the pageantry that went along with the 140th running of The Kentucky Derby.

For those who weren’t as fortunate as Place and his wife one alternative was watching the race on the many screens at WINNERS located inside the sports pub at J.D. Cooper’s.  The huge crowd on hand brought excitement to the race as the crescendo of noise rose at the start of the race and as the horses jockeyed for position.  The most excitement came as people rooted for their horses as they rounded the final turn and headed down the home stretch.

Being part of the large and diversified group on hand was exciting. 

 If you’re interested, we did play the favorite but got lucky as we also had bets on second-place finisher Ride On Curlin and the show horse, Danza.

The excitement was enough to make our group plan on being back at WINNERS for the upcoming Preakness on Saturday, May 17.  Who knows?   We might probably show up for the Belmont Stakes also.

New Golf Tourney Supports 

Ovarian Cancer Research

A new golf tourney will make its debut on Sunday, June 1 at Raceway Golf Course, according to one of the organizers, Cindy Johnson.  The Ovarian Cancer Research Tournament is scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. shotgun start.  The Scramble /Florida Style event will open with lunch beginning at 11:30 a.m. and is followed by dinner at the completion of play.

The entry fee is $125 for individual golfers and $500 for a foursome.  The tourney will feature a registration gift, skins pool, putting contest, closest-to-the pin, auctions, hole-in-one contests and opportunity drawings.  

Tee Box ($100), Dinner ($3750) and Lunch ($2750) sponsorships are available.  There are also sponsorship opportunities ranging from $25 to $250 available in the Program booklet.    

Proceeds from the tourney benefit Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and The Jimmy Fund.  For more information or to register contact – Cindy Johnson (774 239-6632), Marie McNally (508 943-9079), Mitch Pizzetti ( 508 864-2073) or Naomi Kunkel (508 943-1967).

RPC’s Closing Thought For The Day: Love your enemies – it makes them furious.

(If you have sports news worthy of publication please e-mail RPC at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) 

 

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