Baseball Wrap-up

Tournament 

time has 

arrived for 

the select

By Ron P. Coderre

The 2015 regular baseball season is just about in the history books.  Some teams are in the process of taking equipment inventory and putting it in storage until next season.  The teams who were fortunate to post the minimum eight victories, are preparing to move on to the postseason.

The four local teams that have made the cut, all enter the CIAC Tournament hovering around the .500 barrier.  All season Plainfield, Putnam, Killingly and Ellis Tech has been like helicopters, just above tournament ground.

The Plainfield Panthers are 11-9 with the regular season schedule complete, while Killingly also concluded its regular season with a 9-11 log.  Ellis Tech and Putnam of the Constitution State Conference are in the final week of regular season play.

Two teams, Woodstock Academy and Tourtellotte Memorial High School have concluded their seasons.  The Acads closed the books with a disappointing 6-14 log, while Tourtellotte with one game remaining is a dismal 2-17.

Marianapolis of the prep ranks closed its books at 9-7 after falling in the NEPSAC tourney.

Young Putnam Nine Playing Well

The Putnam Clippers missed enjoying a perfect week on the diamond when they lost a pitcher’s duel, 2-1 to a Stafford team that’s having one of the best seasons in the program’s recent history.  The Clippers were also dumped 10-2 by Plainfield.

Scott Davagian, a Clipper freshman, proved that the youth movement is working in Putnam, as he scattered seven Stafford hits and allowed only two runs in the heart breaking loss.  Unfortunately for Davagian, his mates were only able to tally a single run off of Stafford pitching.  Josh Allard scored the lone Putnam run on a single by sophomore Zach Cutler.

Plainfield proved to be too much for Putnam as they overwhelmed the visitors behind the tosses of winning pitcher Jeff Nicolosi.  Steve Jankowski and Jordan Federer provided the fire power for the Panthers who now look forward to the postseason.

Putnam started it’s week with a contest that went extra innings as the Clippers edged out Woodstock Academy 8-7.  Nick Foucault closed out the victory on the hill in relief of Cole Andersen who fought the Centaurs tooth and nail throughout.  Allard was the big offensive gun for Putnam with two hits and three runs-batted-in.  Evan O’Connor posted four hits for the Centaurs in the loss and Trent Appleton’s two run single in the bottom of the eighth brought Woodstock to the brink of tying the contest, only to be stifled by Foucault.

Sandwiched between the Stafford and Woodstock contests, Putnam shutout Grasso Tech 14-0 behind the tosses of complete game hurler Steve Dakai.  Andersen had two hits and three RBIs to pace the 9-9 overall and 7-3 in the CSC – East Division Clippers. 

Woodstock posted a 9-3 win over a good St. Bernard team on a seven run sixth inning offensive explosion.  Kyle Tyler, Ryan Gadoury and Ian Burgess were the offensive catalysts for the Centaurs.  Woodstock closed out its season at 6-14 and 0-10 in the Eastern Connecticut Conference – Large Division when it lost to Ledyard 5-1.

Ellis Tech split a pair of games, losing to Bacon Academy 7-2 and edging Tourtellotte 4-3.  Charlie Innes pitched the Eagles to the victory over Tourtellotte as they evened their record at 9-9 on the season.  Jacob Hart with two hits and three RBIs provided the offensive spark for the Techsters. 

Killingly bounced back from a 9-0 loss at the hands of one of Connecticut’s best teams, Montville, by shutting out Griswold 2-0.  Corey Sipos went the distance in picking up the win for Killingly.  Sipos and Tre Belanger had the two Killingly runs-batted-in.   The Redmen closed out the regular season with a 10-7 loss at the hands of Windham High School. 

Plainfield spoiled a great pitching effort by Kyle Boarman when it lost to New London 2-0.  The Panthers came back with a victory of their own, edging Lyman Memorial 3-1.  The win moved Plainfield to 11-9 on the season and 3-7 in the ECC – Medium.

Tourtellotte picked up its second win of the season when Joe Donovan in his initial start of the season white washed Parish Hill 7-0.  Donovan struck out 13 Pirates in his complete game performance.  Logan Putnam (two hits and three RBIs) and Simon Silvia (three hits) were the big guns for the Tigers.  Earlier in the week Tourtellotte fell to the New London Whalers 15-2.

Marianapolis closed the books on the 2015 season with a 11-0 loss to the Pingree School in a quarterfinal NEPSAC contest.