By Michael Letendre

WEST HARTFORD — The Bristol Senior American Legion baseball program has a big weekend on tap as the program can truly distance itself in the race for second place in Zone 1.

After West Hartford (13-0), who will win the zone this year, the rest of the squads are within reach of Post 2 for second place in the zone.

Bristol entered Saturday at 6-5 in Zone 1 play (6-6 overall) while the other three programs – who are each three games out of second place – carry losing records.

Simsbury (4-8) is 2.5 games out of second place while Torrington and Meriden were each 3-8 overall and three full games out.

Speaking of Torrington, Bristol played Post 38 on Saturday from Fuessenich Park at 2 p.m.

And then on Sunday, the Bristol squad squares off against Meriden for two games.

The first contest commences at 1 p.m.

A weekend sweep by Post 2 would give Bristol second place in Zone 1 this year as no one will be catching West Hartford in the end.

Winless at Home

What makes Zone 1 so strange this season?

While all the teams in Zone 1 starting with the letter ’N’ dropped their programs – namely Naugatuck and Newington – those two squads have something in common with Simsbury and Meriden.

Strangely, all four of those squads have exactly zero home wins.

As bizarre as it sounds, Simsbury and Meriden are a combined 0-8 from their home fields, each beating Bristol from Muzzy Field earlier in the campaign.

Overall in Zone 1, home teams carry a combined ledger of 14-15 – one game under .500 this year.

It’s certainly strange times in Zone 1 in 2022.

Pitch Counts

Bristol coach Jerry LaPenta has never been a fan of the pitch count rules in Connecticut American Legion Baseball.

It’s certainly a bit restrictive in terms of pitching and necessary rest days.

Right before LaPenta’s playing days at Burlington High School, it wasn’t uncommon for pitchers to go the distance in seven and nine inning games – sometimes throwing three times in a week.

But those days are long gone.

In American Legion baseball in the state, the pitch count limit is 105 and while the long time Bristol coach understands why the rule is in place, he still would rather see it tracked differently.

“The whole pitch count thing is [not well liked] for me,” said LaPenta. “I much preferred when it [was tracked] by innings like it used to be. But the problem was a lot of guys coaching didn’t understand how to use people. For me, if somebody pitched seven innings, he wouldn’t pitch for four or five days.”

“Other coaches wouldn’t do that.”

Coaches in the past have left pitchers out on the mound for way too long – rushing them back too soon – and that’s where it got dangerous for young pitchers and their overtaxed arms.

But that’s never something LaPenta would do with his program.

For instance, Bristol stud Roberto Cruz has gone the distance this season against Meriden, Torrington, and most recently against Simsbury last Tuesday.

He’s thrown 92-105 pitches over those three games, going the distance in each.

Cruz is a sterling 4-0 this season and, after one-hitting Simsbury last Tuesday in Bristol’s 6-3 win, he’ll be eligible to pitch again on Sunday at Meriden along with Matt Beaucar (1-3 overall).

Those pitch rules helped those throwers get a little extra rest but in terms of the rotation, Cruz and Beaucar would have gotten that rest – rules or not – before the Meriden twin bill anyways.

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