By Ron P. Coderre

It was a tough week for the local American Legion Baseball entries as only Moosup posted a winning log.  TriTown went 1-4 and Danielson captured only a single victory after starting the season with an early six game winning streak.

Moosup, after getting a late start because the Plainfield High School baseball team went all the way to the CIAC Class M semifinals, has 10 games under its belt. Post 91 stands at .500 with a 5-5 record.

Danielson after a meteoric start has come back to earth.  They lost two-of-three to Willimantic in last week’s action and were beaten by Moosup.  TriTown with a 3-8 record has to be considered the hard luck team of Zone VI.  The Towners lost four games by a total of five runs.  Despite standing at 3-8 the Paul Faucher coached nine knows that moral victories aren’t what win ballgames.

As the teams head down the back stretch of the 30-game season Danielson is teetering in 3rd place in the 11-team zone tied with New London.  Moosup is comfortably in the middle of the pack, while TriTown is in 10th place attempting to get “Lady Luck” on its side.  Niantic (10-2) and Waterford (10-2) are the early leaders.

TriTown Looking for a Change of Luck

Good fortune didn’t smile down on the TriTown American Legion Baseball program last week as the Towners were swept in a three-game series by Waterford.  In reality the three losses could just as easily have been victories.  Adding  insult to injury was a walkoff 4-3 loss at the hands of Jewett City in a game played at Dodd Stadium.  The team finally witnessed a slight change in its baseball fortunes with a 3-1 win over Ledyard-Pawcatuck.

TriTown opened the week with a doubleheader against Waterford, which at the time was undefeated.  In an old fashioned pitcher’s duel between TT’s Will Bourgeois and Waterford’s Connor Lewis, Waterford emerged with a 2-0 victory in a game that went eight innings.  Bourgeois yielded only seven hits in a gutsy effort.

The second game went down to the final TriTown out before Waterford could claim a 5-4 victory.  Ty Anderson was the losing hurler.  Garrett Ponte with two hits including a double was the primary offensive force for the Towners.  

The final game of the series went an unbelievable 14 innings before Waterford once again walked off with a 6-5 win.  Josh Allard, who was immense on the mound, tossing 9 2/3 scoreless innings in relief of starter Steve Bettner, was charged with the loss.  

It was déjà vu all over again, as Yogi Berra would say, as TriTown dropped a heart breaking 4-3 contest to Jewett City at Dodd Stadium.  The Towners wasted a courageous pitching effort by Josh Malboeuf, who despite struggling early on battled to the last out.  The winning run came on a bases-loaded single by Trent Appleton through a drawn-in infield.

Fate finally smiled down on TriTown as they rode a brilliant pitching performance by Bourgeois to a 3-1 victory over Ledyard-Pawcatuck.  Bourgeois threw a complete game six-hitter including six strikeouts.  Kyler Tyler and Malboeuf each had two hits for the Towners. 

Danielson opened a three-game set with Willimantic by dropping the visitors 8-7 with a two-run rally in the bottom of the eighth.  Ben Carbone recorded the victory for Danielson, as Ben Rumrill with a double had the only extra base hit for the winners.

Unable to stand prosperity, Danielson then lost 3-1 and 4-3 to the Thread City nine.  Cory Sipos was the losing pitcher in the first game.  He could have sued his teammates for nonsupport as the offense only garnered a pair of singles.  

Once again in the next game, the offense could only come up with five hits as Travis Zurowski lost in an eight-inning event.  Willimantic scored the winning run in the top of the eighth and Danielson was unable to answer in the home half of the frame.

Danielson also lost to Moosup 3-2 as Post 91’s ace Mike Esposito with 11 strikeouts outdueled Danielson’s Carbone.  Moosup pulled out the victory with a run in the bottom of the eighth inning. 

 Garret Griffin and Steve Jankowski each had a double in the winning effort; while Jordan Federer contributed three hits and Ryan Pambuku added two. 

Moosup then dropped two-of-three with Niantic, losing 9-7, bouncing back with a thrilling 1-0 shutout of the Zone leaders and losing another closely contested game 2-1.  Kyle Boarman picked up the shutout victory for Post #91 despite his teammates being limited to only one hit by Niantic.  Jankowski continued his hot hitting with another double in the 9-7 loss.  Niantic’s Will Butler spun a four-hitter for Niantic in the 2-1 win over Post #91.

TriTown Jrs. Shine at Dodd Stadium

The Triown American Legion Junior team demonstrated a lot of courage as it battled back behind a great pitching effort from Ryan Gadoury to take a walkoff 3-2 win over Jewett City in a game played at Dodd Stadium. 

 Gadoury outdueled Zach Christensen by limiting JC to five hits.  George Murphy scored the winning run on a single by Joe Donovan.

The Juniors lost their other two games, 6-1 to Ledyard-Pawcatuck as they could garner only two hits.  They were then shutout by New London 10-0 as the bats once again went silent. Half way through the season the Jr. Towners are 3-7.

 

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