It's an ECC championship Friday!

The last time these two met, bsck on May 6, East Lyme beat New London, 17-3.
The Whalers are not looking for a repeat of that tonight when they meet the Vikings in the Eastern Connecticut Conference championship game at Dodd Stadium at 7 p.m.
"It's a different day," New London coach Mike Wheeler said after his team beat Plainfield, 4-1, on Wednesday in the semifinals to put the eighth-seed into the championship game.
"When we played them last time, they hit the ball better than any team we've faced this year," Wheeler said. "Hopefully, we can keep the ball down and play some defense."
A complete game effort from sophomore Reynaldo Sierra saved the Whaler's pitching staff, they will go with a lefty, Edgar Santiago tonight against the Vikings. He will be going on his normal week's rest and the Whalers are "hoping that he will do a good job" according to Wheeler.
The baseball championship is just one of five championship events in the Eastern Connecticut Conference today.
The number one and two seeds will meet for the softball championship tonight at Griswold High School as the host Wolverines meet top-seeded Waterford. Not only are the Lancers the No. 1 seed in the tournament, they're also the top ranked team in the state. Griswold, however, hoped for another shot at the Lancers having lost to them by a 1-0 score early in the season at Waterford.
The boys lacrosse championship will be decided at 5 p.m. at East Lyme High School when undefeated Ledyard takes on the host Vikings. East Lyme has normally been the favorite in this battle, but when the two met on April 10, it was Ledyard who scored the 16-6 win.
After the boys game, the girls lacrosse title will be decided with St. Bernard playing at East Lyme. The top-seeded Saints lost to the Vikings in last year's championship game, but beat East Lyme this season.
The first championship to be decided, however, will be in girls tennis where the singles and doubles titles will be played for at 3 p.m. at Stonington High School.
The top-seed, East Lyme's Victoria Santoro, will play Stonington's own Emilie Burgess, the third-seed, for the singles title.
The doubles will feature the top-seeded pair of Amy Whitehouse and Nicole Stevens from East Lyme against second-seeded Ali Risley and Haley Mather from Windham.
The Norwich Bulletin will cover all of these events, complete with photos, in tomorrow's newspaper.

ECC championships: Saints ready for Vikes

St. Bernard had its work cut out for them against Waterford.
Now, it gets to go into the Eastern Connecticut Conference championship match against an even hotter club, East Lyme.
That's fine with the Saints.
The top seed in the ECC tournament survived an 11-10 overtime thriller with the Lancers on a very hot Wednesday afternoon in Uncasville, but were already thinking ahead to the title game on Friday night in East Lyme.The Vikings advanced with a 9-6 win over Norwich Free Academy also on Wednesday.
"This will be the second time playing East Lyme this season and we know that they're going to be hungry, just as hungry as we are for them, because we're (both) looking for the ECC championship this year," Saint wing Catherine Brown said.
What she means is, the motivation is clearly there for both.
The Saints still clearly remember their 10-8 loss to the Vikings in last year's ECC championship game and the Vikings, winners of 11 straight remember their last loss this season; it was to St. Bernard by a score of 12-9.
"I'm so excited," St. Bernard senior Chelsea Phillips said of Friday's showdown with the Vikings at 7 p.m.
The key for taking on a club like the Vikings, according to Phillips, is just keeping their composure.
"I think we just have to settle down, make sure we have possession of the ball," Phillips said. "We just have to slow it down on offense, make sure we make good passes and if we play like we can, we'll be OK."
St. Bernard coach Tonya Acosta admitted she would have probably liked to have played NFA in the title game for only one reason, the Wildcats had beaten the Saints already this season and it would have been a chance to avenge that loss. But she agrees with Phillips when it comes to the key for the Saints against the Vikings.
"I think we just have to play our game," Acosta said. "We have a way we play and we don't really change it up for a team. It's not like we focus on one or two players, we play our game 100 percent and we let (the opponent) conform to us."
The East Lyme-St. Bernard championship is just one of five ECC title tilts scheduled for Friday.
The girls tennis title is slated to be decided some time after 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon in Stonington.
The ECC boys lacrosse title game between East Lyme and Ledyard will be played at 5 p.m. in East Lyme, followed by the girls title match.
The ECC baseball championship between second-seeded East Lyme and No. 8 New London will be played at Dodd Stadium on Friday night at 7 p.m. and just up the road a bit, also at 7 p.m., the ECC softball championship will be decided at Griswold High School.
The softball quarterfinals and semifinals will be played today with the quarterfinals starting at 4 p.m. in Griswold (two games on their two fields), East Lyme and Waterford. The winners then meet at 7 p.m. in East Lyme and on the main Griswold softball field to decide who gets into tomorrow night's finale.
The ECC golf championship will also be decided today at the Quinnatissett Country Club in Thompson with the first golfers teeing off at 12:30 p.m. Woodstock, the host team, is the favorite to win the team title with Killingly's Fletcher Babcock and Woodstock's Cody Semmelrock battling for the individual crown.

ECC softball and baseball tournaments not set in stone

The Eastern Connecticut Conference baseball tournament begins tomorrow, the softball tournament on Thursday, but not all that much is set in stone yet.
Take for instance, softball.
Waterford plays Fitch tonight at 7 p.m. at Washington Park in Groton. If the Lancers win, they're the top seed in the tournament and will play at home against the eighth seed on Thursday afternoon an, should they win, play at home again in the semifinals against the winner of the 4th and 5th seeded game who will play at East Lyme. Griswold, currently the second seed, will host the No. 7 while the three and six seeds play on the other field at Griswold. The winners then meet in the semifinals at 7 p.m. also at Griswold. A win by Fitch over Waterford tonight would flip that all around.
"Who knows what's going to happen when the two of them play," Griswold coach Rick Arremony said about tonight's game."Waterford just doesn't give up any runs (three in 19 games), they're good, they're really good. They have players that make plays everywhere and a pitching staff to help them. I think that's a big asset for them come Thursday when they have to play two games and they have two or three pitchers they can use, they probably will use two, but they could use three. Nobody else has that."
Still, the Wolverines feel as if they're ready to take on the challenge and would like nothing better than to avenge their 1-0 loss to the Lancers back on April 20.
"All of our girls, even our young girls, know what we're up against and we can't take anything lightly," Griswold pitcher Taylor Lane said. "I know it's the ECC's in this little small corner of Connecticut, but these teams are tough. We have two of the top 10 teams in the state (Waterford and themselves) and Fitch is on our heels, we know we have a fight."
On the baseball side, Wheeler got a boost from Griswold on Monday as the Wolverines win over Lyman means a Wheeler win over St. Bernard today in North Stonington gives them the outright ECC Small Division title, the first-ever ECC title in a boys sport for the Lions.
East Lyme's doubleheader win over NFA on Monday clinched them at least a share of the ECC Large Division title, Waterford can grab a piece of that tonight with a win over Fitch.
The baseball tournament begins Wednesday with games at Dodd Stadium, Stonington, Ledyard and Norwich Free Academy, with the semifinals Wednesday night at Stonington and Dodd Stadium.
The championship games for both baseball and softball will take place on Friday, baseball at Dodd Stadium, softball at Griswold High School.

HS track: A nice day for the ECC in Montville

Montville High athletic director Walt Sherwin sat down in the press box and marveled at the people surrounding his track and football field.
"What a view from up here," he said several times.
Indeed, it was a pretty impressive one.
The first Eastern Connecticut Conference track championship at Montville High was blessed with great weather; sunshine along with a few clouds to dim its effects from time to time and a nice little breeze that kept everything just a little more pleasant especially for the athletes.
The press box view that Sherwin enjoyed was an active one. Athletes on the track and on the football field, either participating or warming up for their different events.
Behind each football end zone, both jump pits were busy while the field events ringed the entire complex.
And best of all, everything went off without a hitch, at times running ahead of schedule, something that's not often said at large track meets. It finished just about on time with the javelin competition holding up the final results for about 15 minutes.
Down on the track, it was Norwich Free Academy's day to celebrate as both the boys and girls brought home ECC championships.
It was the third time in a row for the Wildcat girls, the NFA boys were happy to re-take the title after Fitch went home with it a year ago. NFA boys coach Jemal Davis said winning the title, however, was not the primary motivation that his Wildcats came in with.
"What we were focusing on was getting back to a level of expectation," Davis said. "If we compete at a certain level, we know we're a very difficult team to beat. We got the numbers which help us, but we still have to come out and perform. (The championship) wasn't a focal point, but we did want them to realize the importance of this meet."

HS softball: Fitch picking up where it left off

If there’s one thing that set apart Fitch from the rest of the Class LL softball world a year ago, it was their ability to hit.
Just ask Rachele Fico.
The Masuk High graduate dominated just about everyone in her four-year tenure at the Monroe-based school, with the exception of the Falcons who beat Masuk in the LL final last June.
The faces have changed, but the story remains the same, the Falcons still can hit the ball.
Just ask NFA coach Bryan Burdick after his team fell to the Falcons on Friday, 5-3, in Groton.
“Three runs against this team is not enough, they hit,” Burdick said after his team had seen a three-run advantage disappear in the sixth inning. “We did a good job of keeping Brianna Turgeon (two singles) contained, she absolutely mashed the ball against us last time, but if they don’t get you one way, they get you another.”
Turgeon still was the key.
The junior shortstop set the stage for Fitch’s five-run sixth inning rally with a single. After that, Megan Bondy tripled her home and scored on an error. Cassie Mancini and Taylor Noel singled and winning pitcher Alana Luzzio, a freshman, had the game-winning, two-run single.
“It’s been a lot of work, we have worked so hard on hitting,” Fitch coach Kate Peruzzotti said. “We dedicate so much time in practice to hitting, we do every drill imaginable and I have to say, that most of these kids have come so far from where we started.”
Peruzzotti is obviously pleased with the improvement of players like Mancini and Kassidy Manley in the middle of the order, but the team still rotates around one key bat; Turgeon.
“She’s our go-to player, there’s no one you would rather have up with runners on base,” Peruzzotti said.
The offense and the improvement of Luzzio (9-2) in the circle has led the Falcons to a 14-3 record and the win over NFA clinched second-place in the ECC Large Division for the Falcons.
But can this team repeat what last year’s team did?
Peruzzotti’s answer to that was “Why not? Why not us?”
“I think we have a very good chance to go far in the state tournament,” Bondy said. “We have the ability, we have the skill, as long as we bring our ‘A’ game every time, we have a chance.”
One thing the Falcons have going for them; no pressure.
“I don’t think that we’re the same team by any means, but in some ways, I think we’re better,” Peruzzotti said. “We don’t expect to not give up a run, so when we do, it doesn’t phase them and last year it did a little bit I think, because they were good and people weren’t supposed to score runs against them. These guys, they’re like ‘Hey, they’re going to score runs, we just need to score more.’ “

HS softball: Tourtellotte has been snakebit

There were plenty of things that the Tourtellotte softball team did right on Wednesday, but those things aren't generally reflected in the final score.
The Tigers slipped to 9-8 on the season after they fell to St. Bernard, 1-0, in Thompson on Wednesday.
What the score doesn't reflect is that the Tigers threw out three Saint runners, allowed just six hits and committed just one error before losing the game when St. Bernard scored its lone run in the top of the seventh inning.
Unfortunately, that has been the case for much of the season for Bill Rahall's club.
"This is our sixth loss by one run, it's also our fifth loss in the seventh inning," Rahall said after the game. "We've been up 5-1, 4-1, and 3-1 and have lost it in the last inning. It was 0-0 going into the last inning (Wednesday) and we lost it. I would like to have some of those games back."
The Tigers hung in against a team that had beaten them, 7-1, just six days ago thanks to some nice defensive play.
The Tigers cut down Melissa Halloran at the plate attempting to score on a base hit by Mena Buscetto in the third inning.
In the fifth, first baseman Alyson Santerre made a good decision in throwing behind runner Lindsay Rolfe at third base, they eventually caught Rolfe in a rundown and in the sixth inning, catcher Stephanie Vogel throw out Buscetto as she attempted to steal second base.
"We're playing really good defense," Rahall said. "Laura Durand made a great throw from the outfield (Wednesday). I don't think there's anyone better than Haley Anderson at shortstop, Steph Vogel and Jess Mason do a great job behind the plate."
If there's one thing the Tigers didn't do very well, it was hit. Tourtellotte was limited just three hits by St. Bernard pitcher Alexa Gospodinoff and had runners on base in just three of the seven innings.
"We didn't string hits together," Rahall said. "We kind of juggled up our lineup hoping to get some kids some better looks, but (Gospodinoff) is good."
Rahall was also pleased with Stephanie Girouard (1-5) in the circle, limiting the Saints to the six hits with four strikeouts and just two walks.
"They've been beating up on us for the last four or five years," Rahall said. "We've played great games against them and then allowed four or five runs in the sixth or seventh inning. (Wednesday) we gave up only that run in the seventh, but that's all it took for them."
The win gave the Saints at least a share of the ECC Small Division title for the first time since 2007. St. Bernard can clinch the title for its own against Wheeler on Monday.

HS golf: Wildcat provides change of pace for local girls

It was a nice change of pace for many of the 19 athletes who participated in the girls portion of the Wildcat Invitational golf tournament at the Mohegan Sun Country Club at Pautipaug in Baltic on Monday.
Norwich Free Academy, Woodstock and Bacon Academy all have girls programs, but for players like Toni Malerba of St. Bernard, Albriana Farnum of Fitch, Becca Lynch of Ledyard and Kiana Hainesworth of Williams, it was a breath of fresh air.
Instead of competing from the back tees against male players for the most part, they got to compete against their female peers – one of only two times that will occur this season.
“Both Albriana and Toni have played No.1 for their respective teams, so I think it was nice for them to be able to go out and play against the girls in equal competition I guess you could say,” Fitch coach Glen Graham said.
He added, “They’ve been pretty dominant on the boy’s team, so I had her playing in the girls division just to get her some personal accolades.”
For the longest time, it looked as though Graham’s strategy would work out just perfectly as both Malerba, a senior, and Farnum, a junior, brought in identical 46 scores.
Afterwards, however, Malerba was not happy with that score.
“I missed a three-foot birdie putt on the ninth hole and got a five on it,” Malerba said with a wince. “I started off slow, got a little better, but I’m majorly disappointed.”
The twin 46’s stood for much of the tournament until the next-to-last group when Ledyard’s Becca Lynch came in three strokes better.
“I was really happy, I play a lot better from the women’s tees,” Lynch said. “It’s a lot easier to play with the girls, we get along better, and it’s easier to talk to them.”
Lynch’s lead was also short-lived.
In the last group was Kiana Hainesworth from the Williams School. The sophomore, who’s swing reminds her coach of Michelle Wie’s, shot a smooth 41 to take home the individual championship.
“I’m thrilled, absolutely thrilled with how well she played,” coach Tom Crowell said. “I know how well plays, it’s making her understand how well she plays.”
Hainesworth said the key for her was a simple game plan, keep focused on her game and take it one stroke at a time.
“I would like to play in college one day, but I’m going to have to practice more if I want to do that,” Hainesworth said.
That and add a little muscle to her long and thin frame as Crowell said the key for the sophomore might be to go on an offseason workout plan to add a little strength to her game.

HS track: Gazlay, Brown take Plainfield wins

The roots of the Plainfield Invitational track meet started with two very different events, the spring decathlon and heptathlon.
The expansion to a track invitational didn't stop those events from happening on Friday and Saturday at Plainfield High School with St. Bernard's Will Gazlay and Old Saybrook's Nora Brown bringing home the title.
16 male athletes, including one unattached collegiate competitor, and nine female athletes took part in the two events.
"Those are good numbers especially since at this time of year, there are not a lot of kids ready to compete in something like that," Plainfield coach Jeff Parkinson, a former collegiate decathlete himself, said.
"It's fun, I enjoyed it, but it's a tough thing to do at this time of year," Parkinson said.
The only caveat to that is that, outside of the Plainfield competition, there are really no opportunities to experience a live decathlon or heptahlon prior to the CIAC championship in June.
"Most of these kids are never going to get the chance to try these events, let alone in a decathlon," Griswold girls coach Chris Morth said. "It's a very valuable experience for kids who are thinking about doing the decathlon and kids who know they want to do the decathlon and want to see where they're at."
Gazlay was a tweener, he didn't know about the decathlon and therefore had no choice when his coach told him to give it a try. The first-year track athlete finished with 4,745 points.
"I absolutely had a blast," Gazlay said, "some of the most fun that I've had in my life. Usually playing football and basketball, running was a punishment- now it's a sport. I totally regret not doing this since my freshman year."
The pole vault was the biggest challenge and one that he couldn't conquer as he failed to get over the bar.
"My form was terrible," Gazlay said with a smile. "I cleared the opening height, but crashed into the bar and got a nice little cut (on his lower left leg). I knew it was going to be tough, it didn't disappoint."
Gazlay led going into the ninth event, the javelin, but stumbled into third after that event. He made up for it in the 1,600-meter run when a late surge helped him finish second and bring home the victory.
"I had a feeling i would be able to do well, because I've tried several of these events," Gazlay said. "We were thinking about 4,300 points; I never expected to finish with this many points and winning the whole thing."
Woodstock's Kyle Wickiser was second (4,661 points) and Killingly's Zach Hadjer (4,443) was third.
Old Saybrook dominated the girls event with Brown finishing first, her teammates Brianna Hanley and Katie Beezer finished second and fifth.
"Having a heptahlon before the state one (is an advantage) because we usually don't do these events in practice," Brown said. "Having people to compete against is an advantage, too."
Brown's biggest stumbling blocks, the javelin and the 800-meter.
Killingly senior Lauren Hultzman was the top local finisher, she was fourth-best in the competition.
"It's a fun thing to do, gives you more practice, and you get to do events that you normally don't get to do," Hultzman said after her first-ever heptahlon competition.
The decathlon and heptahlon competitions took place in between the Plainfield Invitational events. Parkinson said the addition of the Invitational to the specialy events was a good move.
"It was time for it, time to do something a little bigger," the Plainfield boys coach said. "Schools have been asking us to do it, so we figured we would and year one went well."

HS girls track: Montville makes it a three-peat

In the past two years, it has been relatively easy for the Montville girls track team in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Medium Division.
Not so this season.
“We had a little rough start to the season and were trying to figure out what kind of team this would be,” Montville coach Joel Finnegan said.
“The last two years, we’ve taken hits through graduation and are not nearly as deep as we were,” he added.
But what they lack in depth, they have made up for in talent and determination.
Shatajah Wattely has provided the talent.
She helped Montville to 20 of its points in its 83-66 win over Bacon Academy that gave the Indians their third-straight Medium Division crown.
Wattely won the 100m, 200m and 400m races and was a member of the winning 4x400m relay team. In the process, she broke her personal best by almost a full second in the 200-meter. The success this year, she’s the top-seeded sprinter in all three races going into the ECC championship next Saturday at Montville High, has her thinking big.
“I want to run in college, I want to go to the Olympics — that’s my future, future goal,” Wattely laughed.
The determination has been provided by the likes of runners like Rachael Skinner.
“We used to be able to throw a number of distance runners out there, (Friday) we had Rachael running the 4x800, the 1,600m, the 800 and the 3,200. That’s asking a lot from a kid and she never complains, just gives us everything she has.”
Mandy Joyce also provided some points with second-place finishes in the javelin and high jump — where top performer Amanda Giroux was unavailable due to an injury suffered in the hurdles — and a third in the triple jump.
“We’ve had to rely upon fewer kids and they’ve really responded,” Finnegan said. “A month ago, Bacon was better than us and we’ve really made tremendous strides in the last month.”

HS baseball: Lyman cools Wheeler's run through ECC Small

East Lyme baseball coach Jack Biggs, after his team beat Wheeler by a meager two runs on Tuesday night, said he thought the Lions had a good chance to make a title run not only in the Eastern Connecticut Conference, but in the Class S tournament.
Lyman coach Marty Gomez, after his team narrowly got by the Lions, 5-4, Thursday afternoon in Lebanon, was inclined to agree with his East Lyme counterpart.
“With those two pitchers (Ben Pearson and Conor Gleason), absolutely,” Gomez said. “It’s good to see Wheeler baseball being very, very competitive with a shot to win the division.”
In fact, if Wheeler had beaten Lyman on Thursday, it would have been very difficult for anyone to catch the Lions and coach Jason Mellow said that’s a credit to his players.
“We’ve been striving for this for the last four years,” Mellow said. “I have seven seniors who were on that 2-18 team and we’ve been waiting for this, we’ve been working for this. We’re here, we’re playing tough, meaningful games.”
What got to the Lions a bit on Thursday was the lack of experience in those tough, meaningful games.
Many of the Lyman players have had that experience, not necessarily in baseball, but certainly in soccer where the Bulldogs finished as state runners-up this past fall. That experience is invaluable and it’s something the Lions didn’t have to fall back on.
The result — Wheeler fell behind quickly when Lyman scored three first-inning runs.
“Ben (Pearson) got away from using his change up, he was just going fast ball, fast ball, fast ball and (Lyman) was teeing up on him,” Mellow said. “He’s effective when he changes speeds and comes from different angles. But he came around and we battled back.”
The Lions tied the game at four in the fourth inning with a pair of runs, but again saw their confidence shattered by a pair of events. Lyman re-took the lead with a run in the bottom of the inning and Wheeler left the bases loaded in the top of the fifth.
“That was tough to come out with nothing there,” Mellow said.
Despite the loss, the upstart Lions still have plenty to look forward to although the road still has some large bumps, namely Griswold and St. Bernard.
Not that Lyman is wishing any ill will on the Lions, but they also have never won an Eastern Connecticut Conference title in baseball and a Wheeler stumble wouldn’t be unwelcome.
“Our kids want a division,” Gomez said. “We got one (title) in the Quinebaug Valley Conference and we dominated the Charter Oak Conference in baseball for years. This is something that we’ve talked to the kids about and something that they want.”

HS softball: Plainfield quietly celebrates win over NFA

It’s never easy for a quality Medium Division team to beat a quality Large Division team in the Eastern Connecticut Conference.
But Plainfield’s motivation on Wednesday coming into its game with Norwich Free Academy was not the David versus Goliath theme.
The bigger concern for the Panthers was that they had lost their last two games; Lyman beat them 4-3 and Stonington delivered them a 5-4 defeat.
More so than the losses, it was how those losses came about.
“The last two games we got walked off on,” Plainfield coach Jim Langlois said with a shake of his head. “Lyman left us on the field and then Stonington did the same thing.”
But rather than sulking, the Panthers wanted to turn the negative into a positive.
“I told them we’re really close, we’re close to teams that people don’t think we can beat,” Langlois said.
NFA probably would have been included in that conversation until recently. The Wildcats have their own share of hard times, including a loss to an ECC Small Division team, Killingly, earlier this week.
“That kind of sent us mixed signals,” Plainfield shortstop Taylor Smith said.
That was because Griswold beat Plainfield, 7-0, yet barely got past the Wildcats in nine innings, 1-0.
Anotherwords, what NFA team would show up?
“You can’t come into any game underestimating a team,” Smith said.
Fortunately for the Panthers, the Wildcats continued to fight their own inner demons, could muster just two hits and lost to Plainfield, 2-0, on Wednesday in Norwich.
“We have to work our way out of this,” NFA coach Bryan Burdick said. “We made only one error (Wednesday), we don’t typically make errors, and it cost us a run. Our bats are colder than ice cold.”
When you’re not hitting, you’re not scoring and that puts pressure on the rest of your game.
“It carries over mentally from one play to the next and therein lies a major problem; when you don’t score, you press in the field, come back in and press at the plate,” Burdick said. “Hitting is a very organic process, it needs to be fluid. When you’re pressing, you’re not hitting.”
And when you’re hitting, you’re having fun.
That’s the side of the coin that Plainfield (9-5) was on Wednesday as it touched NFA pitcher Tess Rubega for four hits in the first three innings. The biggest, however, came in the fifth inning when Smith looped a triple to right field to score Lindsey Lehtonen, who had drawn a two-out walk, and came around herself on an error to give the Panthers the win.
“It’s a great win,” Langlois said and then pointed to his team who was beginning to board the bus for the ride back home. “It’s a big win for the program and, more importantly, it’s a big win for them. We’ve had big wins before, but this is for them, they’re quietly smiling. That’s not a rah-rah team, but they’re going to go home (Wednesday night) and say ‘that’s pretty good.’”

HS baseball: Plainfield downs Stonington, 6-4

There were plenty of smiles in the Plainfield dugout after the Panthers 6-4 win over the Bears in Stonington on Tuesday afternoon.
They didn’t know it yet, but the Plainfield players had given their coach, John Schiffner, his 450th career victory.
What was important at the time was that the win continued the Panthers comeback from a rather dreadful start.
“We’re above .500 now and we weren’t expected to win more than two games this year,” shortstop Nik Ververis said.
The Panthers climbed to 7-6 overall thanks to a 16-hit attack and some solid pitching from Connor Green and Barry Maily.
“This team in particular has been a great deal of fun,” Schiffner said. “They have got better and I, honestly, thought we had a chance of going 0-20.”
The Panthers got their revenge for a 7-1 loss to Stonington at home with four runs in the first inning. Ververis (4-5, 3 runs scored) keyed the uprising with a two-run double, Nate Bedard added a run scoring two-bagger and Jeff Buchert knocked in the other with a single.
The Panthers made it a five-run lead in the fourth when Ververis tripled and scored on a Devin Kotulsky (3-4, 3 singles) base knock.
But the Bears put a little scare into the Panthers when they scored one in the bottom of the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Joe Sartor.
Green (1-2) was touched for three more in the fifth when losing pitcher Jay Hespeler and Cody Candelet singled and centerfielder Tyler Tavares put one over the fence in the field he patrols, a three-run shot to cut Plainfield’s lead to one.
“My number two hitter had a nice home run,” Stonington coach Duffy Grace said, “but, we didn’t hit the ball like we can.”
Plainfield got an insurance run in the sixth off reliever jake Berkowitz on a Kotulsky RBI single.
Maily did the rest as he came on in the sixth for the Panthers and allowed just one hit in the last two innings.

H.S. Baseball: Battling the elements in Montville

Just ask Terrance Farina how bad the wind was on Monday afternoon at Montville High School.
The Waterford shortstop called for a pop up that looked like it would fall into his glove on the shortstop side of the pitcher’s mound. By the time he finally tracked down the wicked, wayward ball, it was almost on the first base line and his long trek resulted in it trickling out of his glove and on to the ground.
It was that kind of day for infielders and outfielders alike in Montville’s, 12-4, high school baseball win over Waterford.
“The wind was just whipping — it was swirling all over the place — you couldn’t get a read,” Montville outfielder Max Hart said.
The leftfielder had it easy, he was only challenged once late in the game; others weren’t so lucky.
Montville (12-2) had its own field betray it in the second inning when a fly ball by Pat Rogers got caught in the jet stream and blew over Tyler Seeley’s head for an RBI triple.
“You want it to be caught,” Indians’ winning pitcher Tre Gonzalez said. “Any time a pitch goes over your head, you cringe a little bit and want it to be caught, but you can’t be mad at anyone.”
The Indians got a measure of revenge in the bottom of the third when Hart slapped a long shot of his own to center field that resulted in a two-run triple and ignited a six-run inning for the Indians.
The wind was bad for the players; the fans had their own complaints about the weather. The game started at 5 p.m. due to testing in Waterford and when the sun went down, those left watching the game huddled close for warmth.