By Michael Letendre

The Bristol Blues started the final week of the regular season with a tough in-state loss to the Danbury Westerners, dropping a 5-1 decision on Tuesday evening in New England Collegiate Baseball League action.

The contest, played from Rodgers Park in Danbury, saw the Blues (28-12) scoop up a 1-0 lead after six innings but could not maintain the edge.

The Westerners (18-20) notched two runs in the seventh and added another three in the eighth to make it a four run game – good enough to stave off the locals.

Bristol’s Alec Couture ended up drawing the loss in relief.

He went 2.1 innings, allowed two hits, one earned run while striking out four over a very good effort.

Couture did not walk a batter but just couldn’t pitch his way out of the seventh stanza.

Former Bristol Eastern standout Jagger Duquette did not yield a run in his stint on the hill over the third and fourth frames.

He walked three and struck out two as he improved his ERA to 1.38 on the season.

Both squads ended up with six hits apiece but Danbury made its late hits count.

Calvin McCall led the Bristol charge at the plate, going 2-for-4, while Dante D’Amore (two walks) scored the lone run for the Blues.

Bristol scored its run in the top of the third to claim a 1-0 lead but couldn’t sustain that advantage in the end.

Jack Bowery earned the win out of the bullpen for the Westerners.

He went five innings, gave up just three hits, walked none and struck out four over a big time effort.

Bristol’s Arnone Griffin went 1-for-1 at the dish while Jay Harry, Derek Tenney, and Chaz Myers all tallied hits for the Blues.

The game, which took 2:29 to play, had 484 fans witness Danbury get within two wins of .500 as the regular season comes to a close.

Bristol used six pitchers in the game with no chucker going more than two innings as the postseason in on the horizon.

South Wins All-Star Game

This past Sunday at the Shark Tank in Martha’s Vineyard, the 2022 NECBL All-Star game commenced with the squad from the Southern Division snaring a 13-2 win over its Northern counterparts. 

Martha’s Vineyard catcher Thomas Bramley was named MVP as he smacked out two home runs – grabbing two RBI – to collect MVP honors.

Bristol’s Chaz Myers smacked out an RBI single in the fourth as the South grabbed a 13-2 lead after four completed frames.

Neither team scored again.

The South led 5-2 halfway through the fourth inning before the wheels fell off on the North.

The winners went for eight straight in the bottom of the fourth to snare that 11-run cushion.

The North was held to five hits while the victors smashed out 18 hits.

Also for the Blues that afternoon, Jay Harry went 1-for-3 and scored a run while Myers was 1-for-2 with an RBI and two runs scored.

Colin McVeigh threw a third of an inning, tallying a strikeout, while Luke Garofalo tossed an inning, allowing one hit and fanned one.

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