By Michael Letendre
The Bristol Merchants of the Greater Hartford Twilight League had a new manager in 2011 as long time mentor Bunty Ray finally hung up his clipboard and spikes.
Fifteen year GHTBL veteran Joe Parlante took over the coaching duties for the Merchants while pitching sensation Jarrett Stawarz, power hitter Matt Arburr, the ultra-versatile Rick Hewey and Ray were critical subtractions from the 2010 team.
Pitching was still a strength of the program which included Kevin Rival, Ryan Pacyna, and Eric Butkiewicz – all elite throwers in the league.
Other pitchers who took the mound in 2011 included Nick Macellaro, veteran Brian Archibald, Barry Hertzler, Mitch Rossi, Nick Palmisano, Tom Moran, and Wenzel ‘Weasel’ Walker.
Offensively, Rick Barrett was productive once again as was speedster Jay Maule.
Adam Peters showed his usual mettle, Chris Klepps brought the defense to the infield but wasn’t available on a full-time basis.
Furquam Shamsud-Dini did well at catcher, eventually leading the squad in games played in his only season with the Merchants.
Other players who contributed to the squad included Ron Vazquez, Mike Arasinowicz, Alan Pastyrnak, Joe Vecca, and Mike Lombardo.
Brett Clark saw action in over a half-dozen contests, Paul Francheschi hung around for 16 games while several others saw limited action in the field.
That group included Ryan Dudzinski, Matt Hackney, Pat Flynn, Tony Gerasi, Earl Oakes, Mike Garro, Reinhard Walker, and Rob Ericson.
And Bristol had its moments over the campaign.
On June 5, Rival chucked a shutout that included 12 strikeouts in the first game of a doubleheader from Cromwell, helping the Merchants to a 1-0 victory against Ferguson.
To net the winning run, Parlante singled in Peters as Ferguson absorbed a tough loss.
And the next day, Bristol’s Tom Moran, the former St. Paul Catholic chucker, pitched the Merchants to a 4-1 win against the East Hartford Jets in Bristol as the locals moved to 4-2.
He went four innings, fanning six and walking five to post the victory.
“The intention was to get [Moran] four innings, five innings [or] something along that line, being early in the season and try to work his pitch count’s up as the season goes along,” said Parlante to Michael Letendre of the Bristol Observer. “[Moran] threw the ball great. He only gave up one hit in his four innings.”
On that same night, Walker made his Merchant’s debut, throwing a perfect fifth inning in Bristol’s three-run win over the Jets.
“I’m definitely having fun,” said Walker. “I’m getting out of the house, messing around with the young guys. It’s a good experience.”
The Merchants eventually moved to 7-4 – sweeping People’s Bank to get there – but played up-and-down ball for most of the month of July.
On July 18, Walker homered to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning as the Merchants pulled out a 7-6 win over Avon in dramatic fashion from Muzzy Field in Bristol, improving to 10-7.
“I got a good pitch to hit,” said Walker of the game-winning homer. “I just tried to drive it, hit it hard somewhere and got fortunate.”
And then on July 23, with the Connecticut American Legion baseball tournament commencing from Muzzy, the Merchants’ contests against Hartford were moved to the campus of Central Connecticut State University.
In game one, Macellaro chucked a four-hitter, fanning eight, to earn the win in game one as Bristol easily won, 11-1.
Maule and Vecca each collected two hits and three RBI to pull out the victory.
And in game two, Lombardo was 2-for-4 with two RBI, tallying the game-winning run in the fifth, as the Merchants swept the Rising Stars – coming away with a one-run win in the end, 9-8.
Bristol (12-9) earned its fifth victory in seven tries.
The Merchants ended the year at 13-13 but had a spirited postseason run.
After dropping a heartbreaking 5-4 decision on August 4 to open postseason play, Bristol won three straight games in the loser’s bracket.
Bristol beat Avon the following day, 9-7, as Archibald threw six sharp innings and after allowing two runs in the bottom of the first, he followed up with four scoreless frames to help his squad take a six-run lead in the showdown.
He struck out eight, walked five, and made a big out in the bottom of the first – doing a Steven Segal-type roll on an Avon sacrifice bunt – to chase the ball down and throw the runner out at first base.
“He was awesome,” said Parlante of Archibald. “He struggled a little bit in the first inning where he was kind of feeling everything out but he settled right in during the second, third and fourth [innings]. He had a couple 1-2-3 innings. What a great asset to have on your team.”
And then on August 6, Rival faced the minimum amount of batters, throwing a one-hitter while fanning nine over the amazing effort to help Bristol stave off elimination in a 4-0 victory against the East Hartford Jets.
He threw just 74 pitches as no batter from East Hartford had more than a two-ball count.
“It was lights out…what a great game he pitched,” said Parlante of Rival. “He was hitting locations, spotting the ball…what more can you say? He faced the minimum amount of batters and gave up one hit. It was awesome to have him out there.”
To help his own cause, Rival dropped a three-run home run in the fourth as the Merchants got its postseason shot against Meriden who eliminated Bristol from tournament play in 2010.
And the defending 2010 postseason champs were eliminated by Bristol in the final contest of the night on August 8.
The Merchants were 3-1 winners to remove Meriden from postseason play as a new GHTBL tournament champ would be crowned.
This time around, Butkiewicz (two runs on seven hits, two walks, seven K’s) started the fray to earn the win while Rival closed it to seal the deal, earning the save in the process.
And after a spirited run by the Merchants in postseason play, the Merchants were finally eliminated from postseason play over a tough 2-1 loss to People’s.
Bristol ended the season at 16-15 overall and 3-2 in postseason play.
Pacyna (two runs, five hits, six K’s) pitched well, drawing a tough loss against the Bankers.
Final stats
Parlante was ninth in the league in batting average (.385) while third in the league in hits with 30. He was tied for seventh in RBI with 17 and tied for fifth in the doubles (7).
Barrett was 13th in the league with an average of .368 which included 21 hits.
On the pitching front, Rival (2-2) was sixth in the league in ERA (1.75) over 36 innings pitched.
His 51 strikeouts led the league.
Butkiewicz (32.2 IP) was fourth in the GHTBL with 42 while Pacyna finished11th with 30 K’s.
Pacyna was 13th in ERA (2.83) over 42 innings pitched.
This was one of the rare times Bristol was neither the regular or postseason champions.
“It was a little bit tougher than I anticipated,” said Parlante of his season as the Bristol manager. “The rainouts messed with us a little bit. We tried to get the into the flow and that commitment was a bit suspect because you have guys playing in other leagues [or dealing with] family, work [and] stuff like that. We didn’t have our best line up out there during the regular season but we kind of put together a little bit of a run in the playoffs.”
“We played very good baseball in the tournament.”
What happened to the squad after that final game in 2011?
Check out TBE next Sunday and find out.
