Tri-State Inducts 14th Hall-Of-Fame class

Last year, one of its founders, the Bethlehem Plowboys, celebrated its 100th anniversary predating the league’s formation. Players have come and gone through wars. Four years ago, the league survived the Covid pandemic, albeit in a reduction from 19 teams to 12.

Otherwise, the basics are still there.

Last Friday, prior to Game One of another Tri-State World Series, eight distinguished alumni stood on the Fuessenich Park pitcher’s mound reflecting the spirit that thrives in their induction to the league’s Hall of Fame. As of Saturday, this year’s Tri-State League finals were tied at a game apiece between the Tri-Town (Litchfield) Trojans and the Plowboys, waiting to squeeze in one more game between rainstorms in another glorious year for area baseball, loyalty, camaraderie and perseverance.

Nick Doyle

Doyle’s story is the most compelling because he was born with bi-lateral club feet. The condition required annual breaking and resetting for the first 11 years of his life while he fell in love with baseball wearing knee-high casts on both legs.

Without them by high school age, the casts might have seemed a training advantage instead of a curse. At Litchfield High School, he was a two-time Berkshire League all-star, joining Tri-State’s Litchfield Cowboys as a 16-year-old high school junior. There, through a seven-year career, his batting average dropped below .300 just once while hitting over .400 three times as a league leader in home runs and RBIs.

Equally amazing, he became the Cowboys’ co-coach when he was 20, working with Ed Freimuth to turn Litchfield into a league finalist by 1990, his final year with the team before leaving the state.

Steve Carosella Jr. and Steve Carosella Sr.

Premiere area umpire Carosella Sr. fell in love with the sport playing youth baseball, then found his path in officiating it and scheduling other umpires for games, first in the Catholic youth leagues, then in high school and Tri-State.

“The league is full of top athletes in the area with high recruiting prospects from power 5 Division I colleges. That inspired me to want to be the best umpire I can be,” he said.

How could Carosella’s son do anything but share his dad’s passion for the sport, first as an all-star shortstop at Sacred Heart High School, then Albertus Magnus College? Afterwards, he became a star on a new Tri-State team, Waterbury’s Brass City brew, leading it to a league title in 2009.

“It was never just about a game, but the camaraderie and support of my teammate,” he said.

How could he do anything else after retirement but join his dad on Torrington’s Board of Umpires?

Both brothers starred at Holy Cross High School, then in college and beyond before finding a home with the Brass City Brew as one of the league’s premier batteries, Gary on the mound and Paul behind the plate.

Gary’s pitching career took him to Stony Brook University as an America East Pitcher of the Year. Formidable enough to be signed by the Kansas City Royals, he chose instead to become one of Tri-State’s most dominant pitchers with the help of his brother.

In Brass City’s 2014 entry in the Stan Musial Northeast Regionals, Gary went 10 innings for a 1-0 win.

Jay Harlamon

Harlamon was one of the league’s pure coaches. After a playing career of his own, he brought a group of 18-year-olds, including his son George, into the league in 2005 as the Naugatuck Dogs.

Dedicating his efforts to hard work and loyalty, Harlamon and his Dogs won back-to-back Tri-State championships in 2011 and 2012 and again in 2017.

“That loyalty between me and my players — being a Dog — was something special,” he said.

Special enough to become the first team in Tri-State history to also win the statewide CT Stan Musial championship in 2015.

Joe Deming

Built like a large fireplug, Joe Deming is a baseball bulldog. After graduating from Thomaston High School as a captain and All-Berkshire League player, Deming spent the next 26 years, mostly with the Thomaston Spoilers, wreaking havoc in the Tri-State league.

Deming was an important part of the Spoilers’ three-man pitching rotation alongside current league commissioner Ed Gadomski and the late, great Cris Caron.

“The plan was simple,” Deming said. “Opponents had no idea who they would face that day until the pitcher took the mound.”

In a case of pick-your-poison, many of those opponents preferred seeing Deming on the mound than in the batter’s box.

“The years went by so fast. I wish I could do it again,” Deming said Friday. “Playing with you guys was like a family to me. Thank you for the opportunity to play the game I love.”

Deming still plays in an over-28 league in the Sandy Hook area where he and his family now live.

Ryan Soucy

Soucy’s Wolcott baseball saga began early. In 1999, he led his Sandy Koufax team to a state championship with an incredible 16-for-17 tournament batting performance that included four home runs and the championship game-winning run.

Soucy was a five-time league all-star as a force in the league for 12 years, but joining his peers on the Hall of Fame pitcher’s mound ranks high.

“This is truly an honor I’ll cherish forever,” he said.