Tri-Town at Bethlehem battle Saturday July 26 for top seed

Tri-State, American Legion closing in on pinnacle of summer baseball season in Torrington

By Peter Wallace,CorrespondentJuly 23, 2025 Hearst Media/Register Citizen

Two of local baseball’s most entertaining offerings reach a mid-summer climax in the next few weeks. The American Legion Baseball state tournament, already in progress, races to a state championship next week.

The Tri-State Baseball League takes over next Tuesday, then builds to a championship round beginning Aug. 15. Baseball fans might call the combined efforts a celebration of summer. Each tournament has its own personality, complete with local faces. As of Tuesday, Torrington’s P38 team (10-9-1) stood in a do-or-die spot in the American Legion’s double elimination play-in rounds.

Litchfield’s four-time defending champion Tri-State team, the Tri-Town Trojans, face the three-time runner-up Bethlehem Plowboys Saturday at noon in a regular-season finale on Saturday July 26 for the top Tri-State seeding. Poised for a fifth straight run at the Tri-State Baseball League championship, Tri-Town ace Miles Scribner threw a five-inning no-hitter last Saturday in a win over the New Haven Ravens at Litchfield’s Community Field.

Despite its precarious spot in the Legion playoffs, the P38s had a right to real hope before its game against Middletown Tuesday night at Fuessenich Park. Ranked 10th in the 16-team statewide field, Torrington lost 6-2 at No. 7 Ridgefield (11-9) Monday night, but its opponent, No. 16 Middletown Post 75 (7-14) also lost its first play-in game, 6-0 against No. 1 Waterford (18-0). With a win at home Tuesday, the P38s could expect another chance against Ridgefield Wednesday, since Post 78 faced Waterford in the second round.

Ridgefield, one of two Zone 4 teams attached to Torrington’s Zone 1 during the regular season had a late-season surge to pass the P38s in the state rankings, but Torrington beat them early this summer. A win Wednesday night would send the P38s to South Windsor’s Rotary Field Saturday in the eight-team double-elimination main event. The eventual state champion plays for the next four or five days at Rotary Field and Middletown’s Palmer Field. The state champion moves on to a Northeast Regional at Shrewsbury, Mass. Aug. 6-10, then, with another win, to the American Legion World Series in Shelby, N.C., Aug. 14-19.

Tri-State stays home in the Northwest Corner for its championship sequence. If American Legion’s top two seeds, Waterford and South Windsor (18-2), are the Legion favorites after first-round U19 play-in upsets for the next three seeds, Tri-Town and Bethlehem are prohibitive favorites in the area’s senior league after years of battling each other.

Twelve of the 13 Tri-State teams qualify for this year’s tournament, including the second-year Torrington Thunder, seeded 10th as of Tuesday with a 5-12 record. A look at Tri-Town’s 11-0, five-inning win over the No. 12 first-year New Haven Ravens last Saturday, was a glimpse at what lower seeds were in for.

League Cy Young winner Miles Scribner pitched a no-hitter for his 149th league win. He’s one of three 100+ game-winners on the Trojan pitching staff. Player-coach Bobby Chatfield hit that mark last Thursday in a 5-0 win over the No. 3 seed Wolcott Scrappers. Ageless side-armer Dan Livingston is the third. Scribner got the start because new pitching recruits Miles Wilson and Peyton Thomas, All-State graduates from Shepaug this year, couldn’t make it to the game this time. Neither could former minor leaguers, co-captain Willy Yahn (wedding in Chattanooga) and Mike Fabiaschi (commitments with family).

They’ll be on hand for the tournament, along, perhaps, with former major league pitcher Evan Scribner, expected in from Arizona in time to qualify for the outfield if he can squeeze in five games on the Trojan schedule. Chatfield and Miles Scribner savored their four straight championship years Saturday on the brink of another run for what would be an historic five straight if they win this year.

“It’s all of the championship games I’ve pitched in,” said Chatfield, who took over as baseball coach for Housatonic High School this past season. “But the most meaningful by far was the first one, in 2021. “We didn’t play the previous year because of Covid when we lost teammate Joe Bunnell (to a tragic farming accident). So the championship the next year was for him.” Scribner agreed. “Winning for Joe made it the most meaningful, but it was also a win over Terryville, one of our toughest opponents,” Scribner said. “But 2023 was also special for me because I got to play with Evan that year.”

Meanwhile, New Haven team captain Josalito Pagan felt like his team had reached the majors in its first year in the league. “I think it’s a great league,” he said. “Half our team is injured, but I know we can compete. We’ve been champions in the (New Haven-based) Nutmeg League for two of the last four years.” (and the Wallingford Twilight League in 2024)

The top four Tri-State teams – Tri-Town, Bethlehem, Wolcott and the Burlington Hunters – sit out Tuesday’s single-elimination play-in round, then go to work in best-of-three series through three weekend rounds beginning Aug. 2, winding up Aug. 15-17 in the championship series at Fuessenich Park and Municipal Stadium.

Football and cooler weather will be on the horizon by then. American Legion and the Tri-State League invite you to enjoy the summer – and baseball – while you can.