Saturday July 13 Finals

Bethlehem Plowboys 8  Tri-Town Trojans 3

Watch: Plowboys gain breathing room in Tri-State | Republican-American (rep-am.com)

Campbell leads potent Plowboy offense in win, regular season sweep of Trojans

Copyright Kevin Roberts Sports-69 7/13/24

The Bethlehem Plowboys took another step toward the top seed in the upcoming Connecticut Tri-State Baseball League playoffs with an 8-3 road win over the Tri-Town Trojans on Saturday afternoon at Community Field in Litchfield.

Former Lewis Mills standout Greg Campbell homered, doubled, singled, drove in four runs and scored two more to pace a 15-hit attack. Brett Davino (homer, double, single, two RBI, two runs) and Nate Cormier (double, three runs) each tallied three hits. Ian Schmidt (RBI) and Isaiah Johnson (double) had two hits apiece while Ryan Ponte (RBI double) and former Wolcott standout Chase Belisle added a hit apiece.

Bethlehem scored three runs in the top of the first inning on RBI hits by Campbell, Davino and Schmidt. In the third, Davino launched a solo home run to right field over the only outfield fence at Community Field. Campbell had an RBI single in the fifth and Ponte tallied an RBI double in the sixth for single runs. Campbell put a cap on the Plowboy scoring with a line drive over the right field wall for a two-run home run. “We all hit them to the right spot, thank God,” Campbell said with a laugh, referring to both home runs and other balls that found gaps.

On defense, Belisle did a great job hanging in behind the dish despite getting drilled multiple times by foul balls. Loyola Marymount University guard Tom Peabody was known as “The Human Bruise”, but Belisle could give him a run for his money on the diamond, and he still comes back to catch the next day. Belisle threw out two runners trying to steal second base. At shortstop, Cormier made a couple great throws in the hole to get batters at first base. “I tip my hat to (Tri-Town player/manager Danny McCarty),” Bethlehem manager Rich Revere said. “Last year, he told me, he said the one piece of advice he could ever give me is you want guys that play good defense. I went out and got a shortstop that plays great defense.” Schmidt snared a line drive for an out at first base, Campbell ran down a long fly ball in left-center field, and Jon Wilson chased down a couple balls in center field.

On the mound, Kyle Banche provided eight innings of one-run, five-hit ball. Tri-Town’s Matt Troy smacked a single to score twin brother Tommy Troy in the eighth inning for the lone run off Banche. The right-hander got ahead with his fastball, then worked a slider/curve mix to induce soft contact. He gave credit to his offense, which gave him a quick lead to work with and didn’t let up. “It’s always good when you get run support when you’re pitching,” Banche said. “It takes a huge weight off your back, and those guys have been solid all year.” Former Woodland standout Tyler Boisvert gave up a two-run double to Bryon Carr in the ninth, but closed the game out after that.

“We took the regular season series, 2-0. Now we got to go into the playoffs, and the goal is to win a championship,” Revere said. “We’re probably going to see them in a couple weeks, and we’ll be ready for a dance.”

Copyright Kebin Roberts Rep-Am newspaper 7/13/24

Plowboys Pulling away in Tri-State League stretch drive

About 20 Bethlehem Plowboys showed up at Gallop Field on Thursday to take batting practice. It was Bethlehem’s day off, but the Plowboys wanted to get some work in after a 3-2 loss to the Canton Crushers on Tuesday. On Saturday, Bethlehem blasted 15 hits in an 8-3 Tri-State League win over the Tri-Town Trojans at Community Field. “We didn’t hit Tuesday, so we’re going to hit Thursday, and good things happen when we show up and work,” Plowboys manager Rich Revere said. “Good things happened today.”

Bethlehem’s win gave it a two-game regular season sweep of Tri-Town. With two weeks left in the regular season, it also put the Plowboys (14-1) 11/2 games ahead of the Trojans (13-3) and two games clear of the idle Burlington Hunters (12-3) for the top playoff seed. “It’s important to come out and beat good teams,” Plowboys left fielder Greg Campbell said. “We’re probably going to see them in the World Series again, and we know we’re capable of beating them, which is very important.” The Valley Ducks were in fourth place at 10-5 entering Saturday’s action, followed by the Amenia Monarchs (8-6) in fifth and the CT Sliders (7-7) in sixth (7-7). The top five teams get a bye through the single-elimination wild card round. Eleven of the 12 teams make the playoffs. “(Extra batting practice) paid off, man. We had a good approach, we know that their pitchers are really aggressive throwing strikes, and we were all over it today,” said Bethlehem left fielder Greg Campbell.

Campbell and Brett Davino each finished just a triple short of the cycle. Campbell singled, doubled, homered, drove in four runs and scored twice. Davino singled, homered, doubled, drove in two and scored two more. Nate Cormier had three hits, including a double, and scored three runs. Ian Schmidt (one RBI) and Isaiah Johnson (a double) added two hits apiece. Bethlehem had six extra-base hits. The biggest beneficiary of the Plowboys’ onslaught was starting pitcher Kyle Banche, who enjoyed a 3-0 lead before he even took the mound. “It’s definitely good getting a lead. It takes everything off your back as a pitcher,” Banche said. “You’ve just got to get ahead and get outs. That’s what it comes down to.”  Banche’s strong outing gave Bethlehem’s pitching staff a needed rest; it plays the Naugatuck Scorpions today at 6 p.m. The right-hander pitched eight innings and gave up a single run on four hits. Banche said he got ahead with his fastball, then used a slider and curveball mix. “I felt good all game. I just wasn’t getting ahead early, but then found it,” Banche said. “I was just keeping them off-balance, just mixing pitches.”

Tri-Town’s Bryon Carr doubled deep to left-center field to drive in two runs against reliever Tyler Boisvert in the bottom of the ninth inning. Matt Troy had an RBI single in the eighth inning to bring home twin Tommy Troy with the lone run off Banche. The Trojans did hit a bunch of balls on the screws against Banche, but they wound up in the gloves of Plowboys fielders.

Amenia Monarchs 4   Canton Crushers 2

Monarchs take the long drive to Canton and come home with a 4-2 win. Aiden Damon would go the distance to get the win. Damon would have himself a day (7ip 6ks 1er 1-3 1rbi) Canton would get on board early leading 1-0 after the first. Amenia would tie it in second after lead off double by Nick Reilly and a rbi single by Aiden Damon. Monarchs would score 2 more in the third. The score would be 3-1 into the seventh until Sam Foley scored on passed ball. Canton would score 1 in bottom of seventh and strand 2 baserunners as A. Damon would get fly out to end the game. Angel Valentin would go 2-4 from the lead off spot for Canton. Monarchs are now 9-6 and take on Burlington tomorrow

Copyright Gerry DeSimas  Collinsville Press July 13,2024

Despite nine hits – Canton falls to Amenia

Amenia’s Colby Dunlop was 2-for-4 with a single and a double while pitcher Aiden Damon pitched a complete game to help the Monarchs beat the Canton Crushers, 4-2 at Mills Pond Park on Saturday. Eight individuals had hits for Amenia, who had four extra-base hits in the contest. The Monarchs have won three straight and four of their last five contests. Noah Asmar had a single and a double for Canton (4-11) while Jeff Mulhall hit a double. Angel Valentin had a pair of singles and drove in a run for the Crushers. Amenia took a 3-1 lead with a pair of runs in the third inning thanks to a pair of errors by the Crushers. Canton returns to action on Sunday night with a night game at Wolcott, beginning at 6 p.m.

CT Sliders 4   Valley Ducks 2

A hot and muggy Sunday after a downpour of rain the sliders and ducks met again at Wolcott HS. The field was in as playable shape as it possibly could be thanks to the tireless work of Ducks coach Ty Pelletier and the players (besides shreks swamp at the back of SS). These 2 teams seem destined to keep going back and forth as a pitchers duel began. Ty Pelletier started on the mound for the Ducks and Henry Marino for the sliders. The Ducks struck first in the bottom of the first after a leadoff double from Donny Ek was scored by a single from Daddona. The Sliders would respond in the 3rd with a leadoff single that one hopped the wall from Yancik and 3 consecutive singles from Campbell (1-3;BB,R), Raymond (2-4), and Montini (1-3;BB,R). In the bottom half Nick Forino led off with a single advanced on a walk and scored on a double by Virginia/DC nationally ranked youth baseball coach Ryan Shiel. The sliders would not go away scoring one in the 4th on a leadoff base hit by Ryan Glover who slid into first to avoid a sweep tag and later made a great heads up play between second and third to get caught in between and not allow a double play and Henry would help his own cause by scoring on a base hit by Ty Fernandes. The sliders scored another run in the fifth from Montini putting the score til the end at 4-2. Jared Gallagher was impressive in relief of Pelletier throwing 2 innings with 6k’s. Marino went the distance for the Sliders with a CG 10k performance. Both teams at the time of writing this (fire the Assistant coach for being so late with it) are in a battle for a top 5 seed with only a few games left!

All other games rained out yesterday