By Michael Letendre
The Bristol American Legion Baseball squad took the season series against almost every Zone 1 foe in 2021 except one (well, two really if Meriden was included).
That led to an impressive 15-5 season – off today’s victory at Simsbury – which ended the year with a sweep of Post 84.
And Post 2 saw success against every Zone 1 program in 2021.
With the 3-1 win over West Hartford on Thursday, Bristol took two of three games against the squad that started the year on quite a roll.
The season for Bristol commenced with a 4-3 loss at West Hartford on June 10 – a game that felt like it was played years ago.
But Post 2 then turned around and beat the squad twice – winning 2-out-of-3 to take the series.
“We preach all the time, take two out of three,” said Bristol coach Jerry LaPenta. “When you take two out of three from the bigger teams and the better teams, it’s good. We lost two out of three to Avon. So we gave one back but to beat [West Hartford]. They’re a quality team.”
“So hopefully we don’t see them until late in the state playoffs. We’ll see.”
Bad Luck
With Bristol, alone in first place in Zone 1, and playing so well over the month of July, several individuals conceded that Post 2 should have been one of the Zone 1 teams participating in the Regional Qualifier.
Taking the season series against West Hartford proved that exact point.
“It means that we should [have taken] a trip to the Regional,” said Andrew Lozier after Bristol defeated West Hartford for the second time this year. “We kind of got gypped on that one. But it means a lot going forward because it shows we’re the best team in the zone and probably the best team in Connecticut.”
Setting the table for the CT American Legion Baseball State Tournament
The seedings for the state tournament takes place on August 2 and expect Bristol to earn a high seed in the fray.
Winning Zone 1 would go a long way in terms of seeding for the locals.
A victory over Simsbury would put the locals at 15-5 with the Meriden game the only contest that wouldn’t made up.
But the rest of the zone is in flux in terms of make-ups with Sunday being the last official day of the season.
However you look at it, Post 2 is going to be a tough squad to defeat in the North.
