There is some rain in the area in Stratford and it's sprinkling in Middletown, but the CIAC state championship games are on as scheduled for this Saturday.
No. 6 Waterford is playing No. 4 Montville today for the Class M state baseball championship at Palmer Field in Middletown. Brian Girasoli is covering that game and we will be providing updates both on this blog and on Norwich Bulletin.com.
The Class S softball championship, like Montville-Waterford, is slated to start at noon time. The No. 1 seeded Kangaroos bring a 22-1 record to DeLuca Field in Stratford, No. 6 St. Bernard is 19-6.
It would only seem fitting that the Class L state title will be under the threat of rain, No. 6 Bristol Eastern and No. 1 Waterford were postoned until Sunday the last time they played a state title game in 2007.
Norwich Bulletin.com will also provide continous updates on the two softball state championship games throughout the afternoon.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
An All-ECC battle?
Montville is in, can Waterford be far behind?
The Indians qualified for the fourth state championship game in their baseball program's history Tuesday with a 9-2 win over North Branford in a Class M state semifinal game at Beehive Field in New Britain.
It seems whenever Montville makes it to a title tilt, it brings along one of its Eastern Connecticut Conference buddies. Montville beat Bacon Academy, 6-2, in its last state championship foray in 2006. It also lost to Waterford in 1998, 5-1. The only time the formula didn't hold true was in 2003 when the Indians lost to Notre Dame-Fairfield, 7-0, in 2003.
"Does this mean Waterford wins, I have no idea," Montville coach Phil Orbe said with a smile.
Would he rather play haddam-Killingworth than his old rival next door?
"I'm just happy for our kids, our fans and our community," Orbe said. "Our community gets beat up sometimes and I'm just glad we did something that will make our community proud."
Second-seeded Haddam-Killingworth and No. 6 Waterford are underway in the second game of the day at Beehive Field. The winner plays Montville either Friday night or Saturday.
The Indians qualified for the fourth state championship game in their baseball program's history Tuesday with a 9-2 win over North Branford in a Class M state semifinal game at Beehive Field in New Britain.
It seems whenever Montville makes it to a title tilt, it brings along one of its Eastern Connecticut Conference buddies. Montville beat Bacon Academy, 6-2, in its last state championship foray in 2006. It also lost to Waterford in 1998, 5-1. The only time the formula didn't hold true was in 2003 when the Indians lost to Notre Dame-Fairfield, 7-0, in 2003.
"Does this mean Waterford wins, I have no idea," Montville coach Phil Orbe said with a smile.
Would he rather play haddam-Killingworth than his old rival next door?
"I'm just happy for our kids, our fans and our community," Orbe said. "Our community gets beat up sometimes and I'm just glad we did something that will make our community proud."
Second-seeded Haddam-Killingworth and No. 6 Waterford are underway in the second game of the day at Beehive Field. The winner plays Montville either Friday night or Saturday.
Montville leads North Branford in Class M semi
Justin Brachas threw five innings on Saturday, the right-hander is back on the hill today. The Indians are hoping Brachas (8-0) can get them into a Class M state championship game this weekend and so far, he's done the job.
Montville scored two runs in the first inning and another in the third and now owns a 3-1 lead over North Branford through four innings.
Tyler Contillo drew a one-out walk and Brachas followed with a single. The two runners advanced on a balk and Kyle Holland brought home both with a single to center. The Indians added another run in the third when Contillo reached on an error, moved to second on Brachas' second single of the day and scored on a Holland base hit.
North Branford (14-9) scored its only run in the fourth on a single by pitcher Danny Esposito, a double by Sage Leonard and a sacrifice fly by Marc Notile.
The Montville-North Branford semifinal is just one of six semifinals that the Norwich Bulletin is covering today.
St. Bernard and Somers are also playing a Class S softball semifinal in West Haven. That game is scoreless through three innings.
Montville scored two runs in the first inning and another in the third and now owns a 3-1 lead over North Branford through four innings.
Tyler Contillo drew a one-out walk and Brachas followed with a single. The two runners advanced on a balk and Kyle Holland brought home both with a single to center. The Indians added another run in the third when Contillo reached on an error, moved to second on Brachas' second single of the day and scored on a Holland base hit.
North Branford (14-9) scored its only run in the fourth on a single by pitcher Danny Esposito, a double by Sage Leonard and a sacrifice fly by Marc Notile.
The Montville-North Branford semifinal is just one of six semifinals that the Norwich Bulletin is covering today.
St. Bernard and Somers are also playing a Class S softball semifinal in West Haven. That game is scoreless through three innings.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
ECC boys tennis: Rain wins at ECC championship
You can’t fault the effort put in by the coaches and volunteers to try and get the Eastern Connecticut Conference boys tennis championships in at Waterford High School on Monday, but the elements won out in the end.
The boys singles and doubles championship matches will be resumed today at 3 p.m. at Waterford. Top-seeded Brandon Roode of Griswold won the first set against No. 2 seed Andy King of East Lyme, 6-1, and was leading the second 2-1 when a second line of storms moved into the area. Stonington’s top-seeded doubles team of Dan Banker and Devin White were also enjoying a 6-4, 3-2 lead over the Waterford doubles team of John Stockman and Schuylar Whiting when play was called.
The two championship matches started two hours late thanks to a line of heavy thunderstorms that moved into Waterford area shortly before the scheduled start of 4 p.m.
Once the storms cleared, the Waterford coaching staff, players and volunteers manned the squeegees and even enlisted a leaf blower to clear the court of water and dry it.
Banker and White took a quick 3-0 lead in the doubles match which began prior to the singles competition. Stockman and Whiting, however, rallied to close within one game, 5-4, but the Bears duo was able to pick up the decisive sixth win.
Roode, the two-time defending ECC champion, won the first five games against King before the East Lyme player prevented the sweep in the first set. Roode came back to win the seventh game, but time was not on the players’ side as storm clouds began to gather.
Tournament director Chris Coderre stopped play when those clouds, which failed to produce any lightning, did let loose another torrent of rain that rendered the courts unplayable.
The boys singles and doubles championship matches will be resumed today at 3 p.m. at Waterford. Top-seeded Brandon Roode of Griswold won the first set against No. 2 seed Andy King of East Lyme, 6-1, and was leading the second 2-1 when a second line of storms moved into the area. Stonington’s top-seeded doubles team of Dan Banker and Devin White were also enjoying a 6-4, 3-2 lead over the Waterford doubles team of John Stockman and Schuylar Whiting when play was called.
The two championship matches started two hours late thanks to a line of heavy thunderstorms that moved into Waterford area shortly before the scheduled start of 4 p.m.
Once the storms cleared, the Waterford coaching staff, players and volunteers manned the squeegees and even enlisted a leaf blower to clear the court of water and dry it.
Banker and White took a quick 3-0 lead in the doubles match which began prior to the singles competition. Stockman and Whiting, however, rallied to close within one game, 5-4, but the Bears duo was able to pick up the decisive sixth win.
Roode, the two-time defending ECC champion, won the first five games against King before the East Lyme player prevented the sweep in the first set. Roode came back to win the seventh game, but time was not on the players’ side as storm clouds began to gather.
Tournament director Chris Coderre stopped play when those clouds, which failed to produce any lightning, did let loose another torrent of rain that rendered the courts unplayable.
Friday, May 28, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
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.
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.
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