Thursday June 20 Finals

Burlington Hunters 5  Tri-Town Trojans 4

The Burlington Hunters defeated the Tri-Town Trojans 5-4 in a wild extra-inning game.  It was a tight pitchers duel between Tim Krol and Bobby Chatfield.  Krol would throw all 8 innings for the Hunters, scattering 3 hits, allowing 2 earned runs, and striking out 8.  The Hunters would take an early 2-0 lead in the 4th inning thanks to a Chad Lavelle double and a Zack Martin single.  The Trojans would respond in the bottom of the 5th to tie the game with a 2RBI single by Aidan Donohue.  Both teams would score a run in the 6th inning to make the score 3-3.  The Hunters could have been up 1 going into the bottom of the 7th, but Sway Lopez, just like Taylor Donofrio, loves baseball and thought 7 innings was not enough.  He wanted to play one more inning and using his Becker College (RIP) baseball IQ, botched a would be sac fly hit by Tommaso Tollis.  In extras the Hunters would plate 2 runs thanks to a loud RBI triple from Chad Lavelle and a fielders choice by Andrew Bunger.  Krol shut the door in the bottom of the 8th to secure the win for the Hunters.

Game Highlights include: Chad Lavelle made a couple highlight-reel diving plays at third base; Lucky Charm Ryan Raponey was in attendance for the Hunters; Team Officials have given up all hope of ever seeing Ryan Lavelle again; and finally, it was a great baseball game, but fans were more impressed with the pick-up basketball game that took place after, Andrew Bunger dropped 24 points all from beyond the arc, but is also a huge defensive liability in man-to-man, Tommaso Tollis can kinda shoot, Sean O’Donnell can only go to his left;  Zack Martin specializes in airballs; and Sway is only good at getting rebounds.

Bethlehem Plowboys 5   Valley Kraken 3

The Plowboys kept the Kraken at bay on a steamy Thursday night in Bethlehem, taking the 5-3 victory. Matt Sibilia got the start for Bethlehem going 5 strong innings allowing 1 earned run and striking out 5. The big Blow of the game came from Will Granata who hit a booming 3 run home run in the top of the 4th. The Plowboys took an early 1-0 lead in the first after Dylan Chung (3-4) drove in Jon Wilson on a sac fly. The Plow would add on in the 4th with Matt Mancini and once again Dylan Chung adding a few RBI to pad the Plowboy lead. Austin Brown got the save for Bethlehem, throwing the final 2 innings striking out 5 batters and allowing 2 batters to reach.

Torrington Thunder 15   Canton Crushers 8

Former Yankees minor leaguer Mauro Bonifacio homered for the second straight game driving in 4 runs on the night on two hits and scored three times as the Torrington Thunder officially have now won 2 games in a row. Torrington had 13 hits on the night including 3 from Kyle green and multiple hits from Melvin Alvarez and Robert Anton. Canyon had 9 hits as Jeff Mulhal and Noah Ashmore had two hits each while Ben Sullivan drove in 3 runs. Given all the runs scored and 22 hits in the game – the young Thunder team fielded a smooth game not committing a single error as the Thunder continue adjusting to Tristate big-league baseball.
Naugatuck Scorpions 5   CT Sliders 4
Sam Jordan pitched 3 innings of 1 hit baseball in relief and Yaddy Gonzalez had two clutch base hits to seal the victory for Naugatuck.
Winsted Whalers 12   Amenia Monarchs 5
Coming all the way from Amenia New York, the Amenia team faced off against the Whale in one of the hottest days of the year so far; game time temperature was 90 degrees. Jay Torres would start for the Whale and throw a good game. Improving from his last year’s performance of 15 walks, he would throw 4.2 innings, allowing 5 runs, 7 hits, 7 K, and 7 BB. Amenia’s Colby Dunlop (2-2, Single, Double, Walk) and Sam Foley (1-3, Single, Walk) would help Amenia score 5 runs in the 5th inning. The Whale offense would be awake all game, scoring 12 runs, with Lukas Gryniuk (3-3, Triple, 2 singles, Walk) TJ Kent (3-4, 3 Singles) Mark Cummings (1-1, Single, 3 Walks) and Johnny Lippincott (2-4, 4 Run HR, single) with a monster 400 ft grand slam to keep the Whale runs high. The Whale are hot, notice to the commissioner. Final score, 12-5 Whale win
Valley Ducks 6   Wolcott Scrappers 0
The Ducks took down the Scrappers 6-0 at Wolcott High School in Thursdays action. Jacobi Bouchard tossed a complete game with 10 k’s. Kyle Daddona got the scoring started for the Ducks with a solo home run. Alex Hinkle followed up two batters later with his first career tri state home run. The Ducks would tack on a few more runs in the later innings, including a 2 run single from Billy Untiet. Nick Fox, Alex James, and Matt Northrop all contributed a hit for the Scrappers.