By Michael Letendre

WEST HARTFORD – The Bristol Central baseball team never trailed in its CCC Interdivisional encounter against Conard on Wednesday in West Hartford.

But even ahead by five runs late, the Rams had to sweat it out until the final pitch was thrown as the Rams hung on to knock off Conard, 9-8.

It was Central’s first win of the season (1-1) while the Chieftains fell to 0-2.

The Rams were solid on both sides of the ball, but were excellent from the plate, putting together 14 hits overall.

“We swung the bats pretty good,” said Central coach Bunty Ray. “I thought we came out and J.T. [Clark] set the tone. We talked about that in practice the other day. I thought the other day against Maloney in the [6-3] loss, we were swinging the bat well. Today, it was nice to see short swings [and] balls were hit to all fields. We needed every bit of the runs we got.”

Mike Lorenzetti earned the victory for Central from the mound, going 4.1 innings while posting nine strikeouts and allowing just two hits overall. It was his first varsity win for the program.

Matt Beaucar mopped up the rest of the way, posting a huge strikeout to end the game – preventing the tying run from scoring which would have meant extra innings.

Central jumped on Conard to open the game as Clark (2-for-5, double, RBI) sent the first pitch he saw to the gap in right while Jacobi Banks (2-for-4, two RBI) jammed a chopper up the middle that bounced off the pitcher’s mitt to the shortstop – good for an infield hit – as runners were on the corners.

From there, Lorenzetti (2-for-5, double, two RBI) launched a fly-ball into right and the fielder had trouble tracking it down.

The ball dropped in cleanly, Clark scored from third, and Central nabbed a quick 1-0 lead with two runners in scoring position with no outs on the board.

But Conard’s James McPhee struck out the side from there as the Rams took its one-run edge into the bottom of the first.

Lorenzetti also fanned three batters in the inning but he walked the leadoff man, Emmett Coco, and after back-to-back steals, the runner came home on a passed ball as the game was tied up at 1-1.

In the second, Central had its leadoff man on again as Dylan Hudson (2-for-2, two walks, two runs) flared a single to center.

And then on a 3-1 count, Frank Spirito (3-for-4, two runs, four RBI) absolutely crushed a ball over the fence in left as the two-run homer made it a 3-1 contest.

From that point forward, Conard trailed for the remainder of the game.

“Frank’s Frank. He such a talented player,” said Ray of Spirito. “The other day [against Maloney], I think he was a little nervous. Today, you saw what Frank could do. He’s a big-time player. That’s a guy making plays at third base, hitting home runs, running bases. I’m excited about Frank.”

Conard tried a little tomfoolery with one out in the second with a man on first base.

A bunt was lined right at Lorenzetti on the mound for out number two.

The runner was nearly at second base and Lorenzetti coolly flipped the ball to first for an inning-ending double-play as Central maintained its two-run push.

Central made McPhee sweat in the third as Adam Caron (2-for-4, run) reached first base off a deep infield hit to short while Sean Wininger and Hudson earned back-to-back base-on-balls with two outs.

And then Spirito chopped a scorching single by the third basemen, scoring both Caron and Wininger.

Hudson was thrown out at third to end the frame but the Rams pushed up a 5-1 cushion with Lorenzetti cruising on the hill.

Central padded its lead in the fourth inning as Ryan Ring (1-for-3, two walks) started off with an infield hit to short, advanced to second via a wild pitch and went to third on a third strike passed ball to Clark.

From there, Banks sent a slow roller to the pitcher and when the ball went to first for the second out, Ring scooted home as the RBI tally made it a 6-1 contest.

Conard finally generated its first hit of the game in the bottom of the fourth as Luis Vargas ran out a bunt and the home team eventually had men on the second and third with one gone.

A passed ball eventually scored a run, but Lorenzetti fanned the final two men he faced, the second time in the showdown he fanned the side, as Central’s lead was 6-2 going into the fifth frame.

“It was a weird game today,” said Ray. “Conard really didn’t challenge us offensively but they scrapped. And once they got on first [base], they got on second. They bunted, they moved guys around. They put pressure on us. We had some wild pitch/passed ball opportunities. We have to do a better job at limiting those damages.”

“We could have probably taken this game and put it away a long time ago and we just kind of let them hang around.”

Conard got right back in it during the fifth frame and after a passed ball strikeout, a hit-by-pitch and a wild pitch, the home team had runners on second and third with just one out.

And then a chopped ball to first base bounced by Caron, resulting in two runs and Conard had the deficit trimmed down to 6-4.

“We had a bad luck hit over Caron’s glove,” said Ray. “Other than that, we were great on defense. The walks, I think, hurt us a little bit.”

Beaucar and Lorenzetti then swapped positions between pitcher and centerfield as Central generated two quick outs to keep it a two-run game going into the sixth stanza.

The Rams added an insurance run in the sixth and off walks to Ring and Banks, Lorenzetti hit a grounder to second – plating Ring from third – as the RBI tally gave Central a 7-4 lead.

And then Beaucar threw just eight pitches in the bottom of the sixth inning with Spirito making two nice ground ball plays to help Central get to the seventh ahead by three.

“Frank Spirito was outstanding at third base,” said Ray. “We were playing great defense.”

And in the seventh, Central scored yet again.

With one out, Hudson walked and Spirito had his third hit of the game, a single to center, and the Rams were looking for something good.

Clark provided a clutch hit as he flipped out an RBI single over the second basemen’s head – as did Banks after him for the eventual game-winning RBI – and suddenly, Conard trailed 9-4 and was down to its final three outs.

But a wacky ending to the game saw the home team almost knotted things up.

Three straight hits led to a run as an RBI hit from Coco made it 9-5 before things nearly turned upside-down.

With men on first and second, Central attempted a fielder’s choice on a ground ball but the runner arrived safely at second and trailing 9-5 with the bases loaded, Conard had the tying run at the plate with just one out.

“It really wasn’t defensive mistakes until the end,” said Ray. “I thought we played really good defense. In the last inning, we had a couple mental mistakes, a couple blunders, but other than that [the defense was solid].”

From there, Conard’s Kaleb DeJesus blasted a ground-rule double out to left that slipped under the fence as two runners scored, making it 9-7 with men on second and third.

Vargas then hit into a 5-3 grounder that plated another run, dropping the deficit to 9-8 with a runner at third base.

And with the game on the line, Beaucar struck out Jack Correia to end things as Central won it by a run, 9-8.

“The old me would be running into the outfield, not happy after a win,” said Ray. “At this point, under the circumstances that we’re in, what we’ve had to deal with, I’m just going to deal with it in practice. There’s a lot of things to clean up. But a 9-8 victory on the road, it could have been a lot better and if we want to beat a team we are supposed to beat, it needs to be a lot better.”

“But a win’s a win.”  

CCC Interdivisional Baseball

BRISTOL CENTRAL 9, CONARD 8

from Conard high school, West Hartford – April 14

Bristol Central (1-1)             122 101 2 – 9 14 1

Conard (0-2)                          100 120 4 – 8 6 0 

WP – Mike Lorenzetti (Central), 1-0; LP – James McPhee (Conard)

Bristol Central Batting

2B – J.T. Clark, Mike Lorenzetti

3B – None

HR – Frank Spirito 

Conard Batting

2B – Kaleb DeJesus

3B – None

HR – None

Records: Bristol Central 1-1 overall; Conard 0-2