Baseball Wrap-up

Regular

season ends – 

tourney-

bound teams

move on

By Ron P. Coderre

The 2016 high school regular season, which fought its way through snow, cold, rain and other inconveniences, is finally in the book.  For the fortunate, or should we say the talented and lucky, the season continues with the CIAC postseason.

Plainfield, Ellis Tech and Tourtellotte are qualified, while Killingly, Putnam and Woodstock Academy can focus on graduation and the end of the school year.  Plainfield and Ellis Tech were safely in weeks back, however it took a last inning victory to give Tourtellotte at least one more game.  The Tigers took advantage of the situation and won a Qualifying Round game.  It was the school’s first CIAC victory since 1997.

Putnam and Woodstock Academy put the equipment away as each suffered defeat in their final contests.

Tourtellotte Qualifies 

on 20th Game

Simon Silvia’s single sent Alex Angelo home with the winning run for Tourtellotte in a 7-6 win over Parish Hill in eight innings to salvage win number eight and a trip to the CIAC tourney for the Tigers.  The win was the third in a row in pressure situations for the valiant Tigers.  This is Tourtellotte’s first entry in the CIAC since 2008.

Trailing 6-3 in the seventh inning the Tigers received clutch hits from Angelo, Noah Putnam and a sacrifice fly from Tyler Boyden to knot the game and force the extra frame. 

In the CIAC Tournament the Tigers rode the hitting of Putnam’s two-run double and Boyden’s RBI single in the first inning and hung on for a 5-4 win over Old Saybrook in a CIAC Qualifying Round game.  Angelo was 3-for-4 with the bat and scored three runs as Tourtellotte did just enough to ensure Jake Dutcher’s complete game victory.  The Tigers played #1 seed Oxford in a First Round game on Tuesday.   

To make things official, Tourtellotte played its last regular season game against Ellis Tech and was beaten 16-8 by the Golden Eagles.  Caleb Deslauriers four RBI and Charlie Innes with a home-run powered Ellis Tech.  The Tigers are 9-12.

Ellis Tech picked up a quarterfinal victory in the Constitution State Conference Tournament with a 6-3 victory over Kaynor Tech.  Innes was the winning pitcher and had two hits and two RBI in the winning effort.  In the semifinal contest the Golden Eagles ranked #2 were beaten by #6 Goodwin Tech 8-3.  Deslauriers was the hard luck loser.

Plainfield won a play-in game in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Tournament, shutting out Griswold 9-0 before falling to #1 seed Waterford by an identical 9-0 score.  The Panthers enter the CIAC postseason at 14-8.

Woodstock Academy, needing one win to reach the magic number of eight, had its hopes dashed when the Centaurs lost 6-3 to New London.  The loss ends Woodstock’s season at 7-13.

Putnam ended its season at 6-14 when it was beaten by Wheeler 4-3 in a game that went 11 innings.