Thursday, July 12, 2007

It seems most people believe Matt Harvey, the Fitch High School senior who was drafted in the third round of the Major League Baseball draft, has signed with the Los Angeles Angels.
If he has, it would be news to his dad.
Ed Harvey, who is also the head coach of the Falcons baseball team, was at the Eastern League All-Star game Wednesday night and, once again, said there has been little contact between the family and the Angels.
Harvey joked that he almost expects to next hear from them on August 15th at 11:59 p.m. The deadline for signing drafted players August 15th but it's not like the Harveys are worried. Matt, who is currently playing for a traveling high school All-Star team in the midwest, still has a great future ahead of him at the University of North Carolina.
Ed Harvey promised to keep us posted and we promise to keep you posted if anything happens between Harvey and the Angels.
This seems like a good time to mention this as well, we don't always hear everything that is going on in the local sports world so if you have a tip to drop us, please do. My e-mail is mallard@norwichbulletin.com and we always like hearing from you.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Summer is a great chance to go out and see some athletes who may be coming up through the ranks and will impact area sports in the future.
That's what I have been doing the past couple of days as the Junior League and Little League All-Star tournaments begin to wind down and District championships are played.
I have to say I was pretty impressed with the Killingly-Brooklyn Little League Softball 11-12 year-old All-Stars especially with their size and their defense.
Killingly-Brooklyn, which just merged this season, has some very athletic players on their team including third baseman Taylor Malstrom and catcher Julia Oleksy. Malstrom was three for four in Killingly-Brooklyn's 9-3 win over Sprague-Franklin-Canterbury/Columbia to win the District 11 championship on Monday afternoon.Oleksy was two for three with a triple and two runs batted in.
"She can bomb it," Killingly-Brooklyn manager Mike Hill said. "We have a bunch of kids who can bomb it, there's no question about it. But once you see (pitchers) who have their skills honed and can just bring it, we'll have to see."
One thing Hill shouldn't have to worry about is his defense. Killingly-Brooklyn cut down runners at third and at home on Monday.
"We practice hard, we work hard, we make plays and it pumps everyone up," Oleksy said of the defensive effort.
One can only hope this will say good things for both Killingly High School and Woodstock Academy in the future.

Saturday, July 7, 2007

It has been a wild ride for the Carignan family this year and the hits just seem to keep on coming.
Gary Carignan, the manager of the Norwich American Legion baseball team, has been riding the emotional roller coaster so what happened this week with the Norwich program probably didn't phase him all that much.
Carignan learned, much to his surprise, that not only was he the manager of the program but also the coach as Don Murray, according to Carignan, just didn't show up the past two games against Jewett City and Waterford.
Carignan said Murray apparently disagreed with something that had been done but didn't specify what it was that caused Murray to apparently resign in the middle of the season with Norwich playing above the break-even mark.
Carignan just took the new assignment with a shrug as he has seen it all this year including losing his home to a fire. That situation is in the process of being remedied as the Carignan's are building a new home and recently received some great news as their son, Andrew, will shortly sign a contract with the Oakland A's.
"It's been a crazy year, an absolutely crazy year," Gary Carignan said. "You just take every day as it comes and you make the best of it and that's what we're going to do again here."
Norwich currently has a 7-6 record, they play a doubleheader Sunday in Waterford.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

We haven't taken the summer off that's for sure.
American Legion baseball, an extension of the high school or college season for some, has reached just about it's halfway point and, so far, things have gone as expected.
Despite missing the three best pitchers of the high school crop, Rob Bono, Matt Harvey and Jesse Hahn, Waterford and New London have been rather dominant thus far in Zone VI.
New London is currently on a one-week break from the local Legion battles as they're in upstate New York playing in the World Youth Baseball Classic. If they were around, they would be happy to hear that for only the second time this season, Waterford lost. Niantic did New London the favor on Sunday which put New London a 1/2 game ahead of Waterford although they still have played three more games than Waterford has.
Norwich and Montville both sport 7-5 records while Niantic, Jewett City and Danielson are all at or near the break-even mark.
The final three Zone teams, Tri-Town,Ledyard-Pawcatuck and Moosup have their work cut out for them if they want to make the state tournament. Tri-Town would have to win 11 of it's last 15, Ledyard-Pawcatuck 12 of it's final 17 and Moosup 13 of it's last 15.
Remember to check out the American Legion baseball notes section in the Norwich Bulletin and Norwich Bulletin.com every Monday.