By Ron P. Coderre

It was a 50-50 week for most girls’ softball teams last week as they position themselves to qualify for the conference and State postseason tournaments.

Putnam and Ellis Tech, each with 10 wins, have staked their claims to postseason play, while Plainfield, Killingly and Tourtellotte are pushing steadily toward the magic number of eight wins.  Woodstock Academy unfortunately is the lone area team that has been eliminated from consideration.

The preps, Marianapolis and Pomfret School each picked up impressive wins last week.

Killingly Redgals Making Run 

at Tourney Qualification

The Killingly High School girls’ softball team opened the week in disappointing fashion, dropping a pair of games but rebounded strongly with three wins in a row.  After losing to Plainfield 6-2 and Waterford 15-2 the Redgals edged Tourtellotte in a squeaker 6-5 thanks to a big four run sixth inning.  Hannah Guari (3-4) was the winning pitcher, while Mikayla Pasco contributed a triple to the winning cause.

The Redgals followed the win with an 8-3 victory over Woodstock Academy with Taylor Duchesneau picking up the win in the circle.  Cara Mayhew with a double and a round tripper was the offensive show for Killingly.  The Redgals then picked up a satisfying 4-3 win over Plainfield to vindicate the loss suffered at the hands of the Panthers earlier in the week.  Duchesneau was immense in the circle in raising Killingly’s record to 6-11 on the season and 1-7 in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Medium Division.

Plainfield dropped to 7-9 overall and 3-6 in the ECC Medium Division when it lost its only 

other game to Stonington 10-4.

Putnam, which is 10-7 and 6-4 in the Constitution State Conference East went 2-2 on the week.  The Lady Clippers beat Grasso Tech 16-6 and Whitney Tech 8-3 behind the tosses of strong armed Mackenzie Livingston.  Putnam was on the short end of the stick against Parish Hill as the Pirates shut out the Clippers 7-0.  They were also the victims of a no-hit pitching performance at the hands of East Hampton 23-0.

Ellis Tech after falling to Holy Family 10-9 in a heart breaker bounced back with a pair of wins.  The Golden Eagles took the measure of Vinal Tech 18-8 and Windham Tech 20-10 to raise their record to 10-6 and 7-3 in the CSC East.  Sheriden Murphy picked up the wins in both games for the Eagles and produced a key double on offense in the victory over Vinal.  Taylor Blanchard, with a four-bagger and a pair of doubles, was the offensive leader in the win over Windham Tech.

Tourtellotte lost to Wheeler 7-0 but came back to post a 10-9 win over Windham to lift its season log to 6-9 and 2-7 in the ECC Small Division.  Crystal Daly was the winning hurler and Carinne Sosnowski had a double and triple to pace the offense.  Woodstock Academy was dropped by Fitch 17-1 and Bacon Academy 18-0 to fall to 2-14 and 0-8 in the ECC Large Division.     

Marianapolis raised its record to 10-2 with a 7-4 victory over a good Worcester Academy team.  The Golden Knights offense was led by Elaina Cosentino who went 3-4 with three runs scored and Taylor Pacheco who had a pair of runs batted in.

It took eight innings but Pomfret School prevailed over The Gunnery School 9-8.  Gena LaBeef (4-4) was the winning hurler with offensive help from Mary Redmond (double and triple) and a McKenna Newkirk round tripper.  

RPC’s Super Standings: Marianapolis 10-2; Ellis Tech 10-6; Putnam 10-7; Plainfield 7-9; Pomfret School 6-4; Tourtellotte 6-9; Killingly 6-11; Woodstock Academy 2-14.

 

 

Spring

Clockwise from top left: Moss on crevice near Front Street railroad trestle. Dogwood near downtown Putnam.  Fiddleheads. Quinebaug River.

 

By Ron P. Coderre

This week’s RPC sporty shoutout is sent along to Jeff Coderre of Thompson.  A former Tourtellotte standout athlete, today Coderre enjoys watching his kids compete and playing a little Jack Benny sports.  Enjoy this week’s column, Jeff. 

The Wildcat Invitational is the premier high school golf tournament in Eastern Connecticut and probably throughout Connecticut.  Each year high school golfers look forward to competing in the granddaddy of all events as a preview to potential matchups on the State level.

The 2014 Invitational featured 24 boys’ teams vying for the championship and a number of girls’ teams competing in a nine-hole championship match.  The overall boys’ title went to perennial power Xavier High School from Middletown with a cumulative score of 311.  Glastonbury finished second two strokes off the winning score at 313.  Rounding out the top five was East Catholic (324), Berlin (336) and Tolland (353).  

Thanks to a stellar performance by Drew Aitken of Killingly who posted a 74 over the 18-hole Mohegan Sun Country Club at Pautipaug par 72 layout, Killingly High School was the top local finisher in seventh place with a respectable score of 359.  Aitken’s 74 placed the sophomore sensation third overall in the individual competition.  He was four strokes off the winning pace of 70 fired by Austin Forauer of Berlin.  Second place went to Bryan Stanton of Xavier with a 73.

Joining Drew Aitken in helping the Redmen to the seventh slot was his twin brother John Aitken with an 84 good for a tie in 17th place.  Spencer Salvas of Putnam was the second northeastern Connecticut individual finisher as he posted a 77 to tie him for seventh place with Joe Ko of Marianapolis who also carded a 77.  Tourtellotte’s ace, Mike Jezierski finished tied for 20th place, posting an 85.  The last local to make the top 25 was Nick Harrington of Parish Hill who tied at 23rd with a score of 86.

In the team competition Woodstock finished behind seventh place Killingly in 11th place with a team score of 378.  Tourtellotte captured the 13th spot with a cumulative score of 390, while the Tigers’ Thompson neighbor Marianapolis was one stroke behind in 14th place at 391.  Plainfield was 23rd with a score of 488.

In the female competition Woodstock Academy represented the area very well as Roxanne Garceau fired a highly competitive 50 to finish one stroke off the pace in second place overall.  The individual winner was Katie Strickland of Norwich Free Academy with a 49.  Woodstock placed golfers in the fourth, fifth and sixth slots in a great team effort.  Sothea Semmelrock (54) was fourth, Elaina Becher (60) was fifth and Grace Yang (63) tied for sixth.

All of the teams are in the process of closing out their regular season schedules and looking forward to State tournament competition.

Plainfield Raising Eyebrows

The Plainfield Panthers baseball team, which raised its record to 15-0 with a 1-0 squeaker over neighboring rival Killingly, is beginning to finally receive its due recognition on a statewide level.  Coach Jason Chiavaras’ Panthers cracked both the New Haven Register and Hartford Courant Top 10 polls last week.

Following victories over then #1 Waterford and #10 Montville, the Panthers vaulted over both Eastern Connecticut Conference rivals moving into seventh place in the New Haven Register poll and fifth place in the Hartford Courant poll.  Waterford, which has fallen on tough times losing twice to Montville is likely to fall out of the Top 10 this coming week, while Montville, 9th in the Courant is likely to move up also.

It’s all very interesting to watch these statewide polls when local teams are involved.  Plainfield has been receiving some great pitching from Mike Esposito, Jordan Federer and Kyle Boarman.  Esposito and Federer along with Garet Griffin and Steve Jankowski have also been providing the lumber in producing timely runs as the Panthers are also playing solid defense.  

With six games remaining on the regular schedule it will be interesting to watch Plainfield and see how they react under pressure.  Following the 20-game schedule they enter the rugged and highly competitive Eastern Connecticut Tournament before turning their attention to the CIAC Tournament.

Run For Fun

The warm weather has returned and so have Bob Mayer and Jimi Gothreau.  This dynamic duo gets energized at this time of the year and begins to promote healthy running for local individuals even as it gets more difficult for the two of them to get past the aches and pains associated with aging.

Gothreau and Mayer are encouraging local residents to drop by the West Thompson Dam or West Thompson Lake if you prefer, and get in a little “Fun Run” each Wednesday evening.  The festivities, which started on May 14 and continue through Sept. 17, begin promptly at 6:15 p.m.  People from the very young to the very mature are welcome to join and jog, walk, run or race over the scenic rolling “traffic free” 1.44 or 3.1 mile loops.

“Make every Wednesday your ‘dam fun runs’ night,” said Mayer and Gothreau simultaneously.  Anyone who completes three or more runs over the summer will receive their very own “Dam Fun Runs” T-shirt.  And the nice part of all this activity is that everything is free, including the T-shirt.

College Season Ends Abruptly

It’s been a great spring for college baseball but like all good things, they have to come to an end, just ask the Boston Bruins.  That’s another subject for another time.

Back to college baseball, UConn-Avery Point and Eastern Connecticut State University enjoyed successful springs, winning their conference regular season crowns.  Unfortunately both were bounced from NCAA competition in an unruly fashion, losing the first two games of their respective playoffs.

Avery Point went out with a whimper losing to Westchester Community College and Mercyhust, two teams they had beaten during the season.  ECSU, ranked #1 in the region was beaten by its neighbor down in New London, Mitchell College 4-3.  The Mariners were ranked #8 in the region.  Adding insult to injury the Warriors were beaten by MIT in the loser’s bracket contest, sending them packing back to Willimantic.

One good note out of the season and tournament, former Plainfield Panther Nick Ververis ended his stellar career at Eastern with a 15-game hitting streak.

RPC’s Closing thought For The Day: Over tip your breakfast waitress.

(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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Senior fitness

POMFRET — The Pomfret Senior Advocate Commission is offering an eight-week senior strength training fitness class from 9 to 10 a.m. starting May 28. Classes can be performed standing or seated. For all fitness levels. Focus is on building muscle and endurance looking to increase the ease of which Seniors perform their daily activities. Open to all surrounding towns seniors. Cost  $10 total.Contact Judy Miller 860-753-0613 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .