By Michael Letendre
Did the Bristol Merchants of the Greater Hartford Twilight Baseball League end up winning the postseason championship in 2008?
The squad was once again stacked that year as head coach Bunty Ray returned most his team that won both the regular season and postseason GHTBL titles.
The GHTBL was celebrating its 79th year and the Bristol Merchants were looking for its fifth consecutive finals appearance.
Ray returned Kevin Rival, Brian Archibald, Rick Hewey, Eric Butkiewicz, Nick Hudyma, and Chris Strahowski to the mound.
Other key performers included Rick Barrett, Drew Sgro, Joel Stamilio, Adam Peters, Chris Klepps, Jay Maule, Ryan Dudzinski, and Paul Franceschi.
The Merchants did not bring back GHTBL Rookie of the Year Sean Allaire who was putting together one of the greatest offensive careers in Central Connecticut State University baseball history.
The Bristol squad entered 2008 winning three of the four past GHTBL postseason titles.
Overall, the Merchants were 24-10 and battled ProCare of Meriden in the tournament finals.
And Bristol starting winning right off the bat as the season commenced on May 28.
The defending champs put up a two-run victory over the Jets from McKenna Field in East Hartford, opening the season as 3-1 winners.
Stamilio collected two hits including a double and an RBI, Klepps added an RBI single while Peters put together an RBI ground-out for the Bristol outfit.
Archibald won the game for the Merchants, chucking a three hitter.
And then on July 17, in a rematch with the Jets, Butkiewicz threw a no-hitter, facing just 28 batters, walking none, and just a first inning error thwarted a perfect game as the Merchants blanked East Hartford by a 4-0 push in Bristol.
Klepps had three RBI while Maule scored three runs for the Merchants (6-0).
A quick two game losing streak was followed by more winning as Sgro collected three hits, two runs scored and two RBI in Bristol’s 8-6 victory over New Britain from Beehive Field on June 30.
Hudyma won the contest for Bristol as the program won its 10th game of the season (10-2).
After beating the Avon Legion team by a 12-3 push on July 12, Bristol moved to 12-3 overall but the squad hit the wall.
The Merchants split its next five doubleheaders, going 5-5 over that stretch, playing .500 ball and falling to 17-8 overall as People’s eventually won the regular season championship.
Amazingly, the first three Bristol defeats were all by one run, another came in the 12th inning (8-3 against Foss) while a 4-2 loss to Bill’s Sports Shop was the biggest non-extra inning setback during that 10 game stretch.
And it was a frustrating 10-pack of contests as Bristol allowed just 2.6 runs-per-game to the opponent.
The Merchants averaged 3.7 runs over that same stretch but just broke even against the competition.
On the final day of the regular season on August 3, Sgro belted a two run double – part of a four-run sixth inning – as Bristol got past Simsbury by a single run, 4-3.
Hewey went the distance on the hill to earn the win for Bristol.
Off the power of its 19-8 regular season finish, the Merchants earned a bye and didn’t play for a week due to the weather.
To open postseason play on August 10, Butkiewicz earned the victory for the Merchants, going seven innings, allowing just two hits while fanning 10 in a 3-1 win over Avon Legion from McKenna Field in East Hartford.
Two days later, Bristol lost to ProCare 1-0.
Archibald was excellent, throwing a two-hitter that included three walks over seven innings in a tough losing effort.
Bristol fell to 1-1 in tournament play and had to fight its way out of the loser’s bracket to get back to the GHTBL finals.
On August 12, Bristol started a four-game postseason winning streak, opening up with a loser’s bracket victory over Foss.
The Merchants scored several early inning runs as Bristol nabbed a four-run win over Foss Insurance, 7-3.
Strahowski (5 IP) won the contest for the Merchants as the offense came alive.
A four-run first inning was all the winning side needed to take the victory.
Rival came through with a two-out RBI single that made it a 2-0 game and Sgro followed up with a two-run double and at 4-0, it was more than enough to topple Foss after just one inning of play.
Bristol had to win twice on August 16, defeating both the Vernon Orioles (5-3) and Bill’s Sports Shop (10-3) to go 4-1 in postseason play – qualifying for the title round.
ProCare was undefeated in the playoffs and battled Bristol on August 17 for the GHTBL championship.
The Merchants had to beat ProCare twice to win the postseason championship and nearly accomplished that feat.
After defeating ProCare 5-1 over the first contest, Bristol fell by one in the final game of the year, 5-4.
After defeating the Meriden outfit by four runs in the first contest of the day, it forced a winner-take-all championship final.
The first game saw Klepps slam a home run in the first inning, plating another run in the third, and when Sgro flipped in a two-RBI single in the fourth, it was already a 5-0 game and the contest was out of reach for ProCare.
Hewey earned the win on the hill, allowing just four hits, as Bristol qualified for the final, championship game.
After a twenty minute break, the championship contest commenced but game two saw Meriden run out to an early edge.
Rob Tencza (5.1 IP, home run, three RBI) slammed a two-run home run in the first inning and Meriden added another in the second as the team nabbed a 3-0 push.
Klepps drilled out a homer and an RBI single by Franceschi in the bottom of the second cut the deficit to 3-2.
Sgro added a two-run single in the third and going into the fourth frame, it was a 4-3 lead in the Merchants’ favor.
But luck ran out for Bristol in the bottom of the fourth as Meriden notched two runs on two errors.
Tencza drilled an RBI single to tie things up at 4-4 before he stole second and arriving at third via error.
He later scored on a throwing miscue by the Bristol catcher when a third strike ball was dropped as ProCare zipped up a 5-4 lead that held up for the remainder of the championship game.
Having to play so many elimination games in a row, a tired Bristol squad simply ran out of gas, and arms, in its quest for an upset championship bid.
Year end Awards
Four members of the Bristol Merchants from the Greater Hartford Twilight Baseball League were honored at its annual banquet on January 3, 2009 from the Georginas Banquet Hall in Bolton.
And for the first time, all 12 teams had representatives on the All-Star team.
Honored as All-Stars (26 players made the squad) from Bristol was shortstop Nick Macellaro, pitcher Brian Archibald, and outfielders Jay Maule and Drew Sgro.
Sgro batted .392 (second in the league) and was 29-for-74 overall from the plate.
His hit total (29) was tied for second place in the league.
Sgro was also third in the league with eight doubles and tied for third in RBI with 18.
Macellaro was sixth in the league in batting average (.362, 26-for-72) and tied for fifth in total hits at 26.
He also tallied 17 RBI, good for fifth place in the GHTBL.
Maule batted a healthy .345 (20-for-58) which was good for ninth in the GHTBL while his 12 steals placed him third in the league.
On the mound, Archibald was 5-1 with an impressive 1.18 ERA over 47 1/3 innings pitched had one of his best seasons on the hill.
