Swish

Like green chiffon, this pine tree floats above the top of the pond at Mashamoquet State Park in Pomfret. More photos on page 6. Linda Lemmon photo

 

caption, page 11:

 

 

Doing the Job

The compost spreader provided by AgServices of Thompson does its job spreading compost provided by Eastern Connecticut Recycling as it helps to clear the snow from the Tigers’ athletic fields.  The program proved very popular and successful. Courtesy photo.

 

 

Baseballs not 

snowballs

thanks to

creative 

thinking

By Ron P. Coderre

The recent harsh winter season with record amounts of snow had baseball and softball coaches worried about ways to squeeze a 20-game schedule into a condensed framework.  As recently as a few days ago, the diamonds were still snow covered, with amounts of at least 1-foot in many locations.

But one thing about New Englanders, especially those from northeastern Connecticut, they don’t lack for creativity and ingenuity.  John Foucault of Eastern Connecticut Recycling reached back for a little extra creativity and arrived at a solution that could expedite the disappearance of the snow.

Foucault may have had an ulterior motive but his solution ended up working on behalf of many of the baseball diamonds in northeastern Connecticut.  Foucault, who is the head coach of the TriTown American Legion Baseball team, also serves as the assistant baseball coach of the Putnam Clippers.  His goal was to get the Clippers out of the gym and on to an outside diamond.

Through his business, Foucault had read how the Boston Red Sox ground crew had hastened the melting of the snow at Fenway Park through the application of black sand.  The application attracted the rays of the sun, melting the snow at a very quick pace.  Foucault applied this theory using leaf compost, which his company gets from local municipalities.

In order to test his theory he needed a cooperative partner, which he found in the person of Tourtellotte Memorial High School Director of Athletics Deb Spinelli.  When she listened to Foucault’s theory, she was in.  The decision was simple, especially because Foucault generously agreed to donate the compost to the school.  The theory worked and before they realized it Tourtellotte had three fields cleared of snow.

“The leaf compost is great because it attracts the sun.  Another benefit is as the snow melts the compost serves as fertilizer for the grass and soil.  The benefit is twofold and in the long run has a long-lasting effect.  An added feature is that it’s a completely green process because there are no chemicals involved,” said Foucault.

Tourtellotte employed the services of Ag Services of Thompson to spread the compost.  Soon the word, like the compost, began to spread and Foucault was delivering compost to UConn for its baseball field and to the Town of Putnam, where the compost was used on the baseball, softball and elementary school fields.  The results produced overnight results and with the rain that fell on the region the fields are ready for play with one caveat.  The sun needs to cooperate in the process by spreading some rays of sunshine.

“We’re pleased with the positive results we achieved and the response we received.  We’ve videotaped the procedure for use in future winter seasons.  It’s easy, efficient and affordable, which makes everyone happy,” said Foucault.

Thanks to creative thinking and Yankee ingenuity, by the way Foucault is a New York Yankee fan, local teams can get down to the business of baseball not snow balls. 

 

 

Baseball/Softball Wrap-up

Play ball! 

Local teams 

struggle to get

season 

underway

By Ron P. Coderre

A smattering of baseball and softball games managed to be played as coaches and players anxiously awaited the clearing and drying of local baseball and softball diamonds.  “Old Man Winter” with his heavy snowfall was no friend of spring sports, as it took much creativity and ingenuity to prepare the diamonds for play in 2015.  A winter we all will remember.

Only six baseball games were played in the initial week of action.  The rust, which had to be chipped away, and the lack of outdoor practice took its toll on area teams.  Plainfield and Marianapolis were the only teams to post victories, while Putnam, Woodstock Academy and Ellis Tech all bit the dust in their opening games.

The softball diamond also wasn’t very generous in doling out victories in the initial week of play.  Of the seven games that were contested, only two teams walked off with wins.  Tourtellotte and Ellis Tech posted wins, while Plainfield, Putnam, Woodstock Academy and Marianapolis Prep suffered losses.

Putnam Shutout by Stonington

The Putnam Clippers, hoping to get off on a positive note, were shutout by the Stonington Bears 6-0 in the lid lifter of the 2015 season.  In stepping out of the Constitution State Conference Putnam found the Eastern Connecticut Conference competition a little tougher than expected as they were limited to a mere three hits in the loss.  Josh Allard, coach Chris Hehir’s opening day pitcher suffered the loss.

Plainfield of the ECC opened with a 6-4 non-conference win over CSC opponent Ellis Tech.  Jordan Federer picked up the season opening victory.  He received offensive support from Jeff Nicolosi who registered a double and two runs scored.  Ellis Tech was led by Brett Ravenelle who was 3-for-4.  The Eagles’ freshman hurler Caleb Deslauriers hurled four strong opening innings in the loss.  The Techsters then lost their next contest in a big way, getting pummeled by Bacon Academy 19-0 to drop to 0-2 on the season.

In a rare Sunday afternoon contest, Plainfield demolished Windham Tech 26-0 behind the tosses of Kyle Boarman.  Steve Jankowski with a triple and Dave Carpenter and Federer with doubles paced the 2-0 Panther multi-hit attack.

Woodstock Academy squared off against ECC Large Division foe Ledyard in its opener and was dropped 7-3.  Ryan Gadoury was the lone bright spot for coach Bill Carpenter’s Centaurs, slamming a solo homerun.  

Marianapolis, despite a brilliant pitching performance by senior Billy Hanrahan, fell at the hands of Providence Country Day 2-1 in its opener.  Hanrahan tossed no-hit ball but a pair of costly errors handed the victors two unearned runs.  The Golden Knights bounced back with a solid 7-2 victory over Portsmouth Abbey to even their record at 1-1.  Dalton Bodreau picked up the win limiting Portsmouth Abbey to only three hits.  Tom Horvat, Hanrahan, Ben Fitzpatrick and Christian Cutroni each had to hits in the victory.  

Tourtellotte Ladies Open with Big Wins

The Tourtellotte Lady Tigers softball team picking up where the basketball team left off opened the season with three big wins.  In the early going Tourtellotte sports a 3-0 log. 

The Lady Tigers led by catcher Christina Kopacz’s 3-for-5 offensive showing, which included a homerun and four runs-batted-in, waltzed past Ellis Tech 17-2 in a contest called after six innings.  The Lady Tigers also had a four RBI performance from Crystal Daly.  Hannah Carignan was the lone bright spot for Ellis Tech with two hits and an RBI.

Earlier in the week, the Lady Eagles opened with an 8-2 victory over Prince Tech behind the complete game pitching of Sheridan Murphy, who struck out 10 opponents in posting the win.  Carignan along with Autumn Jackson and Sydney Tetreault each contributed doubles in the 14-hit attack.

Tourtellotte continued its early season barrage by sweeping a twinbill from Putnam 9-1 and 23-8.  Kopacz was the big gun again in the opener with a 4-for-4 performance that included a home run, double and four RBI.  Carinne Sosnowski also had a good day at the bat with a triple, two runs scored and three runs batted in.  Sosnowski continued her torrid hitting in the second game, contributing another triple, five runs scored and five RBI.  Emily Vincent added a home run for the victors.

The remainder of the teams that were able to squeeze in games all suffered losses.  Putnam was beaten in its opener 12-1 by Stonington.  The Lady Clippers are 0-3.  Wheeler pummeled Plainfield 13-1 in the Lady Panthers’ opening contest. 

Woodstock Academy opened with one they wish they had back, losing to out-of-conference opponent Northwest Catholic 3-2.  Angela Caponi was impressive in the loss, striking out nine Catholic hitters and allowing only two hits.  She also contributed a double, which accounted for one of Woodstock’s runs.  The Acads defense committed six errors, which proved costly and led to the loss.

Marianapolis travelled to Portsmouth Abbey for its opener and was dropped 17-3.  Despite a 2-for-3 performance by Megan Tarantino, the Lady Knights fell on the road 7-6 to Worcester Academy.  MPS opens its season at 0-2.

 

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