Monday June 20

Torrington Rebels 14   Lakeville Outlaws 6
The Torrington Rebels’ 14-6 drubbing of the Lakeville Outlaws Monday evening at Torrington’s Fuessenich Park was a game almost everyone involved can’t wait to put behind them. The game wasn’t horrendous; it wasn’t even particularly embarrassing despite its 8 errors (5-3 Lakeville), 17 walks (9-8 Lakeville) and 3 hit batters (3-0 Lakeville). No, it was just, well, slippery. With a couple of exceptions, nobody did particularly well; nobody did particularly poorly. The runs just kept piling up for Torrington despite the Outlaws’ 9-8 hitting advantage. And it wasn’t all walks and errors that caused the scoring.
“Our main goal tonight was to take extra bases,” said Torrington player/coach Curtis Anthony. “We wanted to be aggressive; we haven’t been manufacturing runs.” The Rebels (4-4) came in on a three game losing streak to some of the top teams in the Tri-State League. Lakeville’s 0-8 record loomed as a good opportunity to work on improvement. Nevertheless, the Outlaws, in Lakeville’s first year back in the league after almost a decade hiatus, have good players, including some familiar names for Torrington High School fans. It’s just that they couldn’t capitalize on their good strokes, then compounded the damage done by Torrington with the extra gift bases.
The Rebels did the opposite — limiting the Lakeville damage, then maximizing what they could produce with their aggression. The first inning was as good an example as any. Torrington starting pitcher Ian Pierce (5 innings, 3 earned runs, 6 hits, 7 strikeouts, 6 walks) walked two Outlaws and gave up a hit to Josh Morey, loading the bases with just one out. Then the lefthander got out of his own jam with two consecutive strikeouts.
In the bottom of the inning, the Rebels put up two runs on two Lakeville errors, a walk, hit by Cody Santore (2-for-3) and RBI fielder’s choice. That inning was the pattern all night. Lakeville started the second with back-to-back singles by Matt Bedell and Jeremy Potter. Torrington third baseman Nick Ross got two quick outs, snagging a line drive, then throwing to second for the double play. In the bottom of the inning, the Rebels added two more runs on a hit batter and singles by Ross and Jerry Colon. Three Torrington runs in the third came on just one hit, by Anthony, along with two more errors, a hit batter and a walk.
Three more runs in the fourth were similar. Greg Bodnar walked, then stole his way home as part of the run manufacturing process in the fifth. He stole second and third, then came home on an overthrow to third as part of Torrington’s final four-run outburst. Welinton Sosa (2-for-4, douible, RBI) and Geraldo Almonte (2-for-3, RBI) had good batting nights for the Outlaws. Torrington’s Austin Poucher put in a worthy two innings in relief of Pierce (2 earned runs, 3 hits, 3 strikeouts, 2 walks). Angelo Calabrese hit a solid double for the Rebels. Otherwise, most people will want to forget.