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.”