By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – Fresh off its shutout victory in Pod C play on Saturday, the Bristol Senior American Legion baseball team stays in the winners bracket of the postseason tournament.
Post 2 was able to top Northeast in a 6-0 final in an opening round game of the Northern Division state tournament from Muzzy Field in Bristol.
Bristol moves on to play the top ranked team in the pod, Waterford, on Sunday.
Since it’s a winner’s bracket game, elimination is not at stake.
Waterford, the Zone 6 champion, easily toppled Enfield by an 8-0 score on Saturday to advance to play Bristol.
The showdown against Post 2 takes place from Waterford High School at 1 p.m.
“They’re always pretty tough,” said Bristol coach Jerry LaPenta of Waterford. “It will be a tough challenge.”
Bristol pitcher Matt Beaucar threw a two hitter against Northeast to help the team advance in postseason play.
And on Sunday, Roberto Cruz will take the mound for Post 2.
He’s undefeated this season at 4-0 and should give the Waterford squad all sorts of problems.
The winner of the Bristol/Waterford contest earns two nights off before getting back to work on Wednesday.
“If we win that game, we’ll be in the driver’s seat,” said LaPenta. “You have to be beaten twice.”
Waterford (22-3) was one game better than Willimantic (20-4) this year.
The program finished the regular season winning 11 straight Zone 6 games while outscoring the competition 204-52 over the year.
Waterford is a scoring machine but Post 2 has the firepower and pitching to make the Zone 6 winner sweat more than a little bit.
“I was really pleased with today,” said LaPenta of the Northeast victory. “I wasn’t too stressed. It went pretty easy so all in all, it was a good day.”
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