By Ron P. Coderre

A few weeks ago the biggest concern for local baseball teams was would they be able to get on to the baseball diamond with all the snow we experienced this winter.  Those are distant memories now.

The thing that’s on the minds of most local teams is qualifying for the upcoming CIAC Tournament.  Many of those teams took steps toward achieving that goal by posting key victories in last week’s play.  

Plainfield, Killingly, Putnam and Ellis Tech are knocking on the door of eight victories, the necessary number of wins needed to qualify.  Woodstock remains a dark horse but will need to buckle down to pick up the four wins necessary to reach the magic number.  Tourtellotte at 1-12 is close to being mathematically eliminated.

Marianapolis picked up a victory to go to 7-5 on the season while Pomfret School had a light week, playing only one game.

Putnam Clippers Finally Coming to Life

Like the biblical character Lazarus, the Putnam Clippers are slowly coming to life as the reality of the postseason is staring them squarely in the face.  The talented Clippers were underachieving early in the season but of late the hitting and the pitching appears to be coming together.  Coach Chris Hehir’s boys put up some solid hitting to back the pitching staff in picking up a pair of wins last week.

Putnam ace Nicholas Foucault, who could have sued his teammates for non-support in his first two outings of the season, finally picked up a victory in an 18-0 route-going performance over Windham Tech.  Foucault struck out 12 Techsters unofficially raising his season total to 40 strikeouts in three appearances.  He received offensive support off the bats of Steve Dakai, who had three hits and four RBI’s.  Foucault’s battery mate Jacob Guertin and freshman Scott Davagian also had three-hit games with three runs batted in.

Dakai continued his hot hitting with a home run and triple in a 16-3 victory over Parish Hill.  Freshman Aiden Ciquera had a great day at the bat with four hits, which resulted in four runs scored for the first year player.  The Clippers are 6-5 overall and 5-2 in the Constitution State Conference – East Division.

In a game that had serious implications for both teams, Killingly and Plainfield both boasting 7-6 records squared off in a game that would qualify the winner for the CIAC postseason event.  The victory would also provide a much needed morale boost for the winner.  The Panthers proved to be more up to the task than the Redmen as they walked of the home field with a 5-1 win.  Jordan Federer with nine strike outs posted the route-going victory.  Steve Jankowski was 3-for-3 at the plate.  The win qualified Plainfield for the CIAC Tournament.  The Panther are currently 8-6 and 3-4 in the ECC – Medium Division.

Earlier Killingly had opened its week by increasing its winning streak to three games with a 12-2 win over Ledyard.  Evan Zanauskas led coach Dave Austin’s Redmen to the win with a three-for-four day at the plate, which included a triple and three RBIs.  

The streak came to a halt with a hard luck 5-2 loss at the hands of Montville, one of the area’s top teams.  Ben Desaulnier drove in both Killingly runs in the defeat.  If the loss to Montville wasn’t a hard enough pill to swallow, Killingly lost it next contest to New London 2-1.  The game was decided in the bottom of the eighth inning with the Whalers winning in walk-off fashion.  Owen Guillot posted three hits in the loss for the 7-7 overall and 1-6 ECC – Medium Division Redmen.

In an unusual scenario, Plainfield was shutout in its first two game of the week, 3-0 by Norwich Free Academy and 1-0 by New London.  Federer suffered the loss as his mates could only garner two hits against the tosses of NFA pitchers.  For the second game in a row, the Whalers picked up a walk-off win against an Eastern Connecticut Conference – Medium Division foe when they edged the Panthers 1-0.  Federer with two hits was the lone offensive threat for Plainfield. Jason Biesiadecki and Jankowski were the hitting stars for coach Jason Chiviaras.  Biesiadecki was two-for-three with three runs batted in, while Jankowski was three-for-four and a pair of runs batted in.

Woodstock Academy went 1-1 on the week posting an easy 13-1 over Ellis Tech and losing in a donnybrook to Bacon Academy 18-13.  Connor Hanlon tossed a route-going performance at the Techsters, snapping their five-game winning streak.  He received offensive help from David Redfield, who had three hits, and Kyle Tyler who had two hits and two RBI’s.

The Centaurs then were the victims of a nine-hit, 11 run second inning assault by Bacon Academy in which 15 batters came to the plate in as they fell to 4-10 on the season and 0-7 in the Eastern Connecticut Conference – Large Division.

Ellis Tech lost its second game in a row when it was edged 4-3 by CSC – East opponent Norwich Tech.  Jared Carignan had a two-run double for the 7-6 overall and 5-2 CSC – East Eagles.  Ellis Tech completed its week with a 9-8 squeaker over Windham Tech.  Corey Golden with 2-for-2 at the bat was the hitting star for the Eagles.

Tourtellotte, which is struggling to find a victory, lost 11-2 to Griswold, 10-1 to Lyman and was shutout 8-0 by Windham.  The Tigers are 1-12 overall and 0-7 in the ECC – Small Division.

Marianapolis split a pair of games, walloping The Williams School 20-1 in a game called after six innings and losing to Providence Country Day 7-4.  Billy Hanrahan with a 5-for-5 performance paced a 22-hit Golden Knights hitting attack against Williams.  The loss to PCD snapped a four-game Marianapolis winning streak.  The Golden Knights are 7-5 on the year.

Pomfret School won its only game of the week, shutting out Suffield Academy 3-0.

 

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