Piechowski Shining with Cutters

© Peter Wallace – Register-Citizen, 8/31/2007

WINSTED – Former Gilbert High School star pitcher, Adam Piechowski is living what he hopes will be the first part of a great dream. He is playing for the New Haven County Cutters, a team in the independent Can-American professional baseball league with his sights set on moving up. “This has been my dream since I was a kid,” Piechowski said on a rare day off this past Monday. “The experience I have gotten at this level and the help from the coaches and players has been great.” The hard throwing right hander is making a bid for Rookie of the Year honors as the season winds down. Piechowski has earned the nickname “Every Day Adam” from his Cutters teammates because since joining the team June 20 has been in 36 games, third on the team. He has the second most wins on the team (6), with a 2.27 ERA in 43.2 innings. As has been his forte his entire pitching career, Piechowski has a high strikeout-to-innings pitched ratio with 52 Ks (3rd on the team) in those 43.2 innings. Teams are batting a paltry .213 against him, and he has given up only 11 earned runs.

Before the Cutters, Piechowski had pitched for Central Connecticut State University for three years before graduating in 2006. In 2005 and 06 he was a member of the Torrington Twisters, and then with the Winsted Whalers of the Tri-State league, but it was his old Twisters manager Gregg Hunt who made a call for one of his better bullpen pitchers. “I got a call from coach telling me that the Cutters needed pitchers.” Piechowski said. “A couple of guys had gotten into a brawl with a team from Atlantic City and were going to be suspended.” “Coach Hunt told me I should go down to New Haven and throw a bullpen session to see what they thought.” Turns out his work ethic with the Twisters and the Cutters faith in Hunt sending a quality player was enough; He was signed June 20 without throwing a pitch. “I give coach all the credit in the world for looking out for me,” Piechowski said. “He encouraged me to play Division II ball at Philadelphia University my freshman year before I moved up to Division I at Central the next year.” The Cutters play a 94-game schedule from May 25 to September 3 against teams from as far away as Quebec, Canada .