By Michael Letendre
WETHERSFIELD – The Bristol Eastern baseball team struggled at the plate in its CCC Interdivisional tilt against Wethersfield on Tuesday but did just enough defensively to hang around in the game.
The Lancers trailed by a couple runs early, tied things up midway through the contest but allowed six unanswered tallies as the Eagles roped up an 8-2 victory from Neil Esposito Field at Wethersfield high school.
The Eagles moved to 3-1 overall while Eastern fell to 0-5 on the campaign.
The Lancers put base runners on over several innings but simply couldn’t get those men around as the squad wrangled up just two total hits.
“We just couldn’t get the timely hit,” said Eastern coach Steve Gaudet.
Dylan Woodsome (single, walk) and Tyler Stickels both generated hits for Eastern.
Five errors by the Lancers led to several unearned runs which helped the home team pad its lead over the showdown.
To open the bottom of the first, Wethersfield’s Save Paige (double, three runs scored) was hit by pitch, stole second and third and scored on a Zack Crevier sacrifice fly to right to make it a 1-0 game.
Anthony Pretter, who walked to get on base, went to second base on the overthrow on the Crevier sac, swiped third and scored on a 4-3 ground-out by Brendan Zaleski to make it 2-0.
“We had some walks and let guys on,” said Gaudet of Wethersfield. “It wasn’t like they were hitting the ball all over the place. We didn’t have the big hit and we didn’t have the pitch at times or make the big play.”
“There were a couple clutch things here or there that kind of hurt us.”
Eastern made something out of nothing in the second stanza as Tyler Stickels led off with a ground ball to second base that was thrown away.
A passed ball saw Stickels arrive at second safely and when Ben D’Amato’s grounder was fielded at first base, Stickels – who took third on the play – never stopped running and eventually scored as the Eagles were caught napping at the plate.
And through one-and-a-half frames, Eastern had chopped the deficit to 2-1.
After a quiet second inning for both squads, the Lancers went to work in the top of the third.
With one gone, Woodsome dropped a single down the third base line for the first hit of the game by either team.
Jaydon Churchill arrived at first via error and when Tyler Martin drew a base-on-balls, Eastern had the bases juiced.
From there, Lozier zipped a fly ball to mid-centerfield for the second out but on the play, Woodsome easily scored from third as the sacrifice tied up the game at 2-2.
In the bottom of the third, Eastern was one strike away from getting out of a huge jam but a two-RBI double by Brendan Zaleski made it a 4-2 game in Wethersfield’s favor.
Paige slapped a one-out double near the line in right and eventually ended up on third via a passed ball.
Crevier reached base when he was plunked by a pitch and got to second on a stolen base to put two runners in scoring position.
On a full count to Zaleski, the clean-up batter slapped a ball off the wall in left to clear the bases as Wethersfield scooped up a 4-2 edge.
D’Amato walked to start the fourth inning, but nothing came of it for Eastern as the Kingstreeters were still trailing by a couple runs.
In the Wethersfield fourth, Matt Patkoske reached on an error, Ethan Lemos walked and when Harold Martinez turned his sac bunt towards third into a hit, the bases were juiced with no one out.
However, the Eagles never scored in the frame.
Churchill (five IP, five runs, four hits, three Ks) fanned Aaron Guay for the first out and when a short fly to left was caught by Woodsome, two were gone.
Patkoske attempted to score from third base but was gunned down by Woodsome at the plate, off a nice tag from catcher Cameron Moore, for a double play and though four completed innings, Eastern still trailed by two but Churchill and company were hanging around in the fray.
“I can’t ask any more from him,’ said Gaudet of Churchill. “In both starts this year, he’s been outstanding. Against Glastonbury, he threw 4.1 innings of shutout ball and gave up one run and inherited a run. I can’t ask any more of him.”
“He hasn’t pitched a varsity game before in his life and that’s what he gives me.”
Martin earned a two-out walk in the fifth but ended up stranded at first as Eastern tallied just one hit through five innings at the plate.
Wethersfield notched a run in the fifth when Crevier slipped an infield hit to shortstop and scored when Terzo’s grounder was thrown away at first – posting the home squad to a 5-2 lead.
The Lancers grabbed their second hit of the contest to open the sixth as Stickels dropped a single into left.
He advanced to second off a D’Amato grounder and nabbed third on a passed ball.
Pinch hitter Nate Ouellette then drew four straight balls and quickly, Eastern had runners at the corners and put the tying run at the dish.
Pinch runner Trevor Nohilly eventually grabbed second to get two runners in scoring position, but Cole Latko grounded out to first to end the threat.
Martin came into throw in the bottom of the sixth and the Eagles went for three more runs.
A wild pitch, a sacrifice fly from Anthony Pretter and an RBI single by Zaleski led to three runs which stretched the Wethersfield lead out to 8-2.
In the seventh, Woodsome walked to lead off the frame but three outs later, Wethersfield had its 8-2 victory in hand, moving to 3-1 overall.
“ We’re a little inexperienced,” said Gaudet. “There’s not a lot of varsity experience in the field and we’re struggling with understanding game situations at times or our approaches at the plate.”
“There’s just a lot we’re going to work on [but] we’re going to get better.”
CCC Interdivisional Baseball
WETHERSFIELD 8, BRISTOL EASTERN 2
from Field, Wethersfield
Bristol Eastern (0-5) 011 000 0 – 2 2 5
Wethersfield (3-1) 202 013 x – 8 5 2
Battery – Bristol Eastern: Jaydon Churchill, Tyler Martin (6) & Cameron Moore; Wethersfield: Noah Terzo, Brendan Zaleski (6) & Aaron Guay.
WP: Noah Terzo; LP: Jaydon Churchill
Bristol Eastern Batting
2B – None
3B – None
HR – None
Wethersfield Batting
2B – Savy Paige, Brendan Zaleski
3B – None
HR – None
Records: Wethersfield 3-1 overall; Bristol Eastern 0-5
