Autism Tri-State All-star game

What a day to remember- Saturday June 22 !! Starting with the weather, which was forecasted for storms all afternoon – but the skys’ cleared and it was a picture perfect sunny day for the entire game. Matter of fact, the only complaint of the day was sunburn that fans encountered from the hot rays we saw all day long. Public announcer Chris McKenna with assistant David Benson handled the booth, and Litchfield County Sports owner Tim Gaffney was present to photograph all events of the day, including the first pitch ceremony and a tremendous singing performance by Autism’ very own Alex Schein, that brought about the largest hand of the day from a very enthusiastic crowd. Capping off the pre-game festivities – with a cover worthy photo of Tri-State All-Stars and representatives from Focus Center For Autism.

“We feel like rock-stars” stated Autism leaders. “This is a day that our clients will never forget”. Each autism participant thanked us for the experience and for being able to keep the baseball they threw during the ceremony. Two full containers of donations collected goes a long way when you are a non-profit organization. Thank you to Umpire Steve Carosella for taking charge on the field, wasn’t easy with several bang-bang calls. Huge thank you to WAPJ radio for all their support, and the Rep=American for foot-noting our game in the newspaper. Val’s Vittles whom had a steady line from 2pm – 5:30pm providing all our ballpark favorite snacks at the food truck.

Head Coaches Chet Warner and Tom Dubois split up players representing all 17 teams, like a playground backyard session, choosing one player at a time and we were greeted to a nail-biter. What was noticeable was the amount of young players making their Tristate all-star debut which bowds well for the growing future of the Tri-state league. Several great plays that included a highlight reel catch in centerfield. Came down to bottom of the seventh inning, with two outs, bases loaded and down by two runs, a deep drive into left-center field was run down by center fielder Jimmy Spirito to save a 3-1 final score victory. “Everybody was really nice” stated one young Northwestern player. Even the veterans on the field stated “we really liked the team we had”… Just a great day to be remembered by Tri-state and Autism alike.