Trumbull bats stay hot, drop Ludlowe to 0-3

Friday, April 5, 2013 by:Pat Pickens
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The Trumbull Eagles are widely considered the favorites to win the FCIAC.

They’ve proven why the last two days.

A day after socking 14 hits in a six-run win over Bunnell, the Eagles roped 13 basehits in a 10-1 rout of Fairfield Ludlowe on Friday at Kiwanis Field.

“We swung the bats well yesterday and once again today,” Trumbull coach Phil Pacelli said. “I’m pretty pleased with the way things are going right now.”

Carl Johnson knocked three of those hits, driving in four and falling a home run shy of the cycle. Trumbull improved to 2-1 and 1-0 in the FCIAC.

“First conference win is big,” Pacelli said. “I’m pleased to come out of here with a win.”

Casey Mack scored three runs and drove in one. The Eagles scored four in the first, and eight of Trumbull’s 10 runs were scored with two outs.

“Timely hitting is the name of the game,” Pacelli said.

A day after being no-hit by Newtown’s Pat Mullins, the Falcons did not register their first hit until Mike Kochiss’ fourth-inning double. Ludlowe is 0-3 and has been outscored 25-4 in three games thus far.

“I know that we’re better than what the record indicates,” Ludlowe coach Keith O’Rourke said. “It’s always frustrating to see your kids struggling … but the season isn’t made up of win week, it’s a two-month marathon.”

Trumbull’s Ryan Bayuk struck out three, allowing only two hits in six innings to earn his first win of 2013.

“He just pounds the zone,” Pacelli said. “He throws a real heavy ball, and it’s tough to pick up.”

Pat Pickens is the sports editor of the Fairfield Citizen, a Hearst Connecticut Newspaper. Follow him on Twitter here.

Categories: FCIAC

Greenwich beats Warde to open the season

Friday, April 5, 2013 by:Scott Ericson
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Greenwich first baseman Justin Gaccione, right, takes a pick-off throw as Warde's Ian Duffy gets back safely on Friday. (Bob Luckey/Staff photographer)

Another regular season game, another Greenwich victory.

Ryan Marks was solid on the hill for the Cardinals, pitching a complete game and allowing a run in the seventh with his team ahead by 8.

It was the first run Marks allowed since last April against Southington, pretty impressive for a high school pitcher.

Looks like Warde was pitching around UConn-bound Taylor Olmstead, walking him twice and hitting him once, but Cam Fennell was 3 for 3 behind him and Justin Gaccione drove in two runs batting fifth.

The Cardinals will need those guys to produce if Olmstead is ever going to see quality pitches.

He did drive a ball to left center, but it got knocked down in the wind for a flyout.

Warde seemed to press a little in the first inning, calling for a suicide squeeze with one out and their No. 3 hitter at the plate, but Warde Coach Mark Caron obviously felt it would be tough to score runs against Marks and he was right.

The batter missed the sign and the runner was run down by the catcher, essentially ending the Mustangs best chance in the top of the first inning.

Beautiful day for a game, though a bit windy and cool, I’ll take it for early April in Connecticut.

Categories: FCIAC, General

Vallone’s gem pushes Staples to 2-0

Friday, April 5, 2013 by:Doug Bonjour
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Staples High right-hander Rob Vallone allowed just one hit and walked four over seven innings in the Wreckers’ 4-1 win over Brien McMahon on Friday.

The lone hit — a clean single off the bat of McMahon catcher Mike Giordano — came with no outs in the sixth inning.

Before that inning, while in the dugout, Vallone thought — or perhaps, reminded himself briefly — that he had a no-hitter intact. And after the game, he joked about how those thoughts came back to bite him.

“I was thinking about it between innings in the fifth and the sixth,” Vallone said. “I was like, ‘Did anyone get on base besides me walking them?’ Of course, the first or second pitch, the baseball gods come back to haunt you. You can’t think about it.”

****

Vallone struck out nine in the win, but he also got some help behind him. For the second straight game, Staples committed zero errors.  The Wreckers also threw out a runner on the basepaths.

“Our defense has been great. I thought a big play in the game was when in (the sixth inning) our catcher threw the kid out stealing,” Staples coach Jack McFarland said. “Our defense has been fine. We stress here that it’s a game of 21 outs. If we can keep it to 22, 23 on defense and keep all our outs on offense … our chances of winning the game have increased.”

Categories: FCIAC, General

Danbury leans on every trick to beat Norwalk

Friday, April 5, 2013 by:Cameron D. Martin
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Leading 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Danbury had to use some trickery to stifle a budding Norwalk rally. With Norwalk’s Corey Hayes on second base and no one out, pitcher Jack Grace cajoled Hayes into taking an ill-advised lead. Grace stepped off quickly and rifled a throw to shortstop Marquise Marrero to pick off Hayes and end Norwalk’s rally.

“We work on that every day,” Grace said of the move.

Danbury coach Shaun Ratchford said it’s the little plays that often make the difference in high school baseball.

“We work on all the little things because we tell the kids the best team in baseball doesn’t always win. You want to have every trick up your sleeve to give yourself a chance to win.”

Categories: FCIAC

Diamond Vision: Trumbull downs Bunnell

Thursday, April 4, 2013 by:Mike Cardillo
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Trumbull's Carl Johnson attempts to pick off Bunnell's Cameron Belliveau at first, during Thursday's game in Stratford.

Another day of covering a game in early April.

Another night of thawing out.

Unlike some other high school sports, it’s hard to draw massive conclusions about a team going forward when it comes to baseball. Just look at Trumbull last year. The Eagles had seven losses before the FCIAC tournament, got in as as the No. 7 seed and beat No. 1 Greenwich in the final, which was undefeated at the time.

Thursday Trumbull looked strong offensively, pounding Bunnell 13-7 in a marathon game that wasn’t especially kind to pitchers for either team.

“We’re going to have a target on our back so we know we have to go out there and play our ‘A’ game every single day,” said Trumbull catcher James DeNomme, who drove in four and threw out a runner trying to steal second.

The top of Trumbull lineup were on-base machines, working counts and grinding out at-bats despite the dipping temperatures. Jake Levison and Chris Masi each scored twice and No. 3 hitter Casey Mack was on base in all four plate appearances, scoring three runs. Ryan Fritz drove in five from the DH spot.

The unusual thing about high school baseball is its unpredictability, especially once we hit the playoffs when anybody can beat anybody something you just don’t see very often in other sports.

With teams still rusty from being inside all winter, making any initial judgments seems foolhardy.

As Bunnell coach Scott Szturma said, “It’s early. We’re not panicking.”

Sound advice.

Other Thoughts:

* A couple scouts with Juggs guns were there, presumably, to observe Trumbull starter Colin Keyes and Bunnell starter Justin Lasko. Neither seemed to have good control today, which is to be expected when its cold and tough to get a good gripe on the ball.

* Maybe I still have basketball on the brain, so it was odd to see Bunnell’s Tim White and Matt Nolting in baseball uniforms. (White was cleared to play earlier in the day due to a lingering back injury.)

* Spent some time with Bunnell soccer coach Jim Ginand, who does the PA at Bulldogs baseball games. The Bulldogs have some, let’s say, interesting at-bat walk-up music, highlighted by Nolting’s choice of Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.” Bunnell’s talented sophomore Ross Rossomando didn’t pick a song, so the seniors saddled him with the Offspring’s 1998 classic, “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy).”

* Nolting and Cameron Belliveau hard into each other pretty hard trying to grab a soft liner up the middle behind second base. Both called for it, and the result was both laid on the outfield grass, briefly. Both came out of the game but seemed OK … in my qualified medical opinion.

Categories: FCIAC, SWC

Wilton’s Reuter pitches no-hitter

Thursday, April 4, 2013 by:Scott Ericson
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Wilton Pitcher Ryan Reuter got the Warrior’s season off to a memorable start, tossing a no-hitter against Weston Thursday.

Reuter, who will be playing at Trinity College next year, struck out 10, walking just one.

“Ryan did a tremendous job keeping hitters off balance.” Wilton coach Tim Eagan said.

Alex Jacobson was Reuter’s battery mate and also drove in two runs with a double in the sixth inning as Wilton won the game 5-0.

Categories: FCIAC, General

Staples pushes past Newtown with furious rally

Thursday, April 4, 2013 by:Doug Bonjour
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Staples High School's Sam Ellinwood congratulates teammate Noah Yokoi during a six-run sixth inning in the Wreckers' 7-6 season-opening win over Newtown on Wednesday. (Mark Conrad/For Hearst Newspapers)

The season sure didn’t start the way Staples High had hoped.
The first five-and-a-half innings didn’t, at least.
Trailing Newtown by five runs in the sixth inning on Wednesday, Staples’ bats woke up — in a really, really big way. The Wreckers pieced together five hits, a walk and used two errors to rally for a dramatic 7-6 win.
What caused the slow start, you ask? Was it Opening Day jitters? Was it the mastery of Nighthawks right-hander Brandon Marks, who allowed just six hits — five singles — over the first five innings? If you ask Staples coach Jack McFarland, he’ll tell you that the Nighthawks were simply better.
“I think they were just out-playing us,” McFarland said. “We were catching the ball, they were catching the ball. They got a couple two-out hits. (Staples pitcher) Chris (Speer) was struggling with his command a little bit. He was about 50-50 balls and strikes.”
***
Staples right-hander Greg Salamone earned the save by sitting Newtown down 1-2-3. Salamone, who set a school record with six saves in 2012, overpowered the Nighthawks’ lineup, recording two strikeouts. The Wreckers’ closer, however, didn’t think he had his best stuff.
“I knew they were a good program. They really battled against us,” Salamone said. “We just got some good at-bats, some good hits, guys were getting on base. I was just thinking, ‘Let them put it in play.’ Not my best stuff, but I’m glad with what happened. A great win for the team.”
Categories: FCIAC, General, SWC

McMahon’s Giordano provides the power

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 by:Chris McNamee
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McMahon baseball coach John Cross said earlier in the week that the Senators’ offense would rely heavily on the hitting of catcher Mike Giordano, whom Cross described as “a line-drive hitter with gap power.”

Sure enough the Senators’ first run of the season was plated when Giordano roped a triple in the left-center gap the first inning of Wednesday’s game 8-0 win over Bunnell.

Giordano, who is going to play catcher for the University of Rhode Island next year, is known more for his defensive and game-calling skills. In the season-opener, pitcher Mark Ballard sprinkled three hits over six innings and credited Giordano with calling a great game.

“I just knew that what Mike (Giordano) called behind the plate, I was gonna pitch,” Ballard said.

Cross said this year’s team is more well-balanced than last year’s squad, which went 16-9 overall and was 13-5 in the FCIAC.

“Guys aren’t looking at the guy next to them hoping they’ll step it. They’re doing it themselves.”

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Bunnell coach Scott Szturma said the team’s lackluster hitting against McMahon was a carryover from the preseason.

“But we’ll get it corrected.”

– Cameron Martin

Categories: FCIAC, General
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