Roundup
Volleyball 
team improves
to 4-2
The boys’ volleyball team enjoyed its spring break matches as it took two victories by shutout, one on the road, the other at home.
“When people go away on vacation and you are piecing things together, it’s great to get two victories. I was thankful the scheduling gods scheduled who they scheduled,” coach Adam Bottone said.
His team was missing Evan Chernik due to a family vacation so Nathan Billings had to move over to outside hitter.
Weston Mission moved over to the right-side hitter and the Centaurs also called up some junior varsity players to fill some holes.
The Centaurs posted a 3-0 victory in Hartford Thursday over the Hartford Magnet Trinity Catholic Academy team.
The Centaurs had to battle in the first set before posting a 25-21 victory.
Things went easier in the next two with Woodstock posting 25-14 and 25-18 victories.
Brayden Bottone led the way with eight kills while Owen Budd added seven. Nate Billings delivered 15 service points and Christian Hart had 11 digs.
The win followed a 3-0 win over the Aerospace Academy/International Academy co-op Wednesday. 
Billings had nine kills while Bottone added eight. Jake Henderson had 14 assists, Hart accounted for 11 service points and Budd had seven aces.
The wins were the first two Connecticut Volleyball League matches for the Centaurs who improved to 4-2 overall, halfway to the magic number of eight needed to qualify for the state tournament.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking. Knowing who we have coming up, we should be able to get to those eight wins pretty quickly. I’m optimistic about that. Every win we can get after that is just a feather in the cap for seeding. It would be nice to get a first or second-round home match and not have to travel to Newtown. I’m optimistic because I see progress from the guys every match. There are some things that I am trying to get them to do that they are applying and some things that are taking more time but we are trending in the right direction which is good,” Adam Bottone said.
One concern for the Centaurs’ coach is that his team only had one day of practice during the spring break week and had a league match on Monday against Norwich Free Academy.
Outdoor Track
There were no outdoor track meets during the spring break week but several Woodstock athletes kept busy with specialized events.
Seniors Christian Menounos and Colton Sallum competed in the Connecticut Distance Festival Wednesday in Middletown and both broke Woodstock Academy school records. 
Menounos finished seventh in the mile in a time of 4 minutes, 24.37 seconds improving the school record by a little more than a second. 
Sallum broke the previous school mark in the 5K set by Kevin Graham in 2004 by 45 seconds as he finished in 15:29 and placed ninth overall. The time was the 43rd best in the nation in high school this season and also represents quite the personal improvement. Sallum’s best finish as a freshman in a 5K race was over 31 minutes.
Junior Eli Manning also bettered his own school record in the pentathlon at the Patriot Games at Coventry High School over the weekend.
The pentathlon includes the 100-meter hurdles, shotput, long jump, high jump and 800-meter race.
Manning gathered 2073 points and finished seventh overall just ahead of teammate Owen Williamson who was eighth with 2055 points in the boys competition.
The girls’ team also had several competitors in the one-day test of skill and endurance. Sophomore Elise Coyle shined as she finished third overall with 2493 points in the event. Coyle just missed the school record, set by Kristen Paquette in 1994, by a slim 209 points. Senior Juliet Allard was fifth in the competition with 2072 points and junior Isabel D’Alleva-Bochain was seventh (1737).  
Baseball
The baseball team had four games on their home diamond during the week and were on the losing side in three of them to fall to 2-3 on the season and 0-2 in Div. I of the ECC.
Norwich Free Academy put the Centaurs in an early hole on Saturday as the Wildcats scored three times in the first two innings and went on to post a 5-2 victory.
The Centaurs did get one back in the third inning when senior Cam Nason walked, stole second and scored on a pair of wild pitches.
NFA added two more runs in the fifth inning.
The Wildcats almost needed all of those to pull out the win.
Woodstock scored its second run in the bottom of the sixth when Brady Ericson walked, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Hayden Maloney single, but a double play cut the hoped for rally a bit short.
In the bottom of the seventh, Colin Ericson reached on an error and then both Nason and Tanner Graham singled to load the bases. A pop out, strikeout and fly out ended the threat, however.
Maloney was the only player with a multi-hit game for the Centaurs with a double and the base hit.
Normally, a four-run lead with Brady Ericson on the mound means good things for the baseball team.
But the senior lefthander had troubles finding the plate in the sixth inning and East Lyme went home on Thursday with a 5-4 victory.
Woodstock had opened the early 3-0 lead in the second when senior leftfielder Haydon Rowland singled home both Maloney and Matt Hernandez. Bradley Blair then came around on a Graham base knock.
The Centaurs made it 4-0 when Brady Ericson put one back to the fence in right field and steamed into third with a triple in the fifth inning. Brady Ericson came in to score on an errant pickoff attempt.
But, the Vikings worked a pair of walks off of Ericson to start the sixth inning and Harrison Papuga singled to load the bases. Nick Cambi brought in the first run of the game for East Lyme on a sacrifice fly
Brady Ericson picked up his 11th strikeout of the game to record the second out but an infield ground ball resulted in an error that allowed two runs to score and cut the Centaurs lead to one run.
The Centaurs went down in order in the sixth inning and Brady Ericson had to leave the mound in the seventh due to his pitch count.
The Vikings took advantage as pinch-hitter Jack Hayes rapped a double to center field. After an intentional walk, Papuga tied the game with a single and Cambi later delivered what proved to be the game-winning RBI fielder’s choice.
Brady Ericson had two hits in the game for the Centaurs.
Earlier in the week, a six-run sixth inning lifted the Centaurs to a 10-3 win over Coventry.
Blair had a bases-loaded, three-run double and Caleb Simoneau, who finished with four runs batted in, added a two-run double in the rally for the Centaurs.  Simoneau, Graham, Hernandez and Blair had two hits apiece. Logan Coutu picked up the win on the mound as he went six innings and struck out four.
Unfortunately for the Centaurs, the offense did not show up against South Windsor on Tuesday.
South Windsor pitcher Rob Wunsch held the Woodstock offense at bay as he went the distance and allowed only one hit while striking out 12 and not walking a batter in a 6-0 win for the Bobcats.
Maloney had the only hit for the Centaurs with a fifth inning single.
Maloney also pitched well as he surrendered just one run and five hits in his five innings on the mound.
South Windsor put the win away with five runs in the top of the seventh inning.
Softball
The softball team put in some extra time on the field Saturday as its game with Killingly on the Commons went nine innings before the visitors pulled out the 5-4 victory.
The Centaurs fell behind, 3-0, but tied the game by scoring two runs in the fourth and another in the sixth when Madison Bloom doubled and later scored on a Kaya Nichols ground out. The 3-3 tie remained until Killingly scored two runs in the top of the ninth.
The Centaurs made it close in the bottom of the inning when Ella Chitmanotham singled and later scored on a Faith Sortwell base hit.
Chitmanotham had three singles in the game while Nichols knocked in two runs for the Centaurs.
Offense was hard to come by in the first two games of the spring break week for the Centaurs (2-3, 0-2 Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II).
For a second game in a row, the Centaurs were shutout as they traveled to Stonington and lost to the Bears, 9-0, Wednesday.
Madison Bloom, Ellary Sampson, Kaya Nichols and Maci Corradi had singles for Woodstock. Grace Delsanto and Nichols had the only two singles in the game for the Centaurs on Tuesday at Brookfield where the hosts prevailed, 12-0.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

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Haydon Rowland strokes a 2-run single in a 5-4 loss to East Lyme. 

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Brady Ericson pitching for Woodstock in a 5-4 loss to East Lyme.

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Bradley Blair gets a face full of dirt as he dives back to first base on an unsuccessful pickoff attempt by East Lyme. 

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Brady Ericson fields a bunt attempt by South Windsor. The Centaurs got the out on the play but lost to the Bobcats, 6-0.

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Hayden Maloney pitches against South Windsor
Photos by Marc Allard/Woodstock Academy.
 

123.1:
Outdoor track coach Josh Welch is flanked by senior runners Christian Menounos, left, and Colton Sallum who both set Woodstock Academy school records at the Connecticut Distance Festival in Middletown last week.

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