By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – The batting order for the 2023 Bristol Central baseball squad can be extremely lethal, whether facing the top or bottom of the lineup.
And while the Rams were bottled up a bit offensively over their showdown against Plainville on Friday afternoon, it was the bottom of Central’s order that was able to topple the CCC South foe.
With ducks in the pond in a 1-1 game in the bottom of the seventh, Central’s Christian Stafford smacked a roper up the middle for the game-winning hit as the Rams foiled the Blue Devils by a 2-1 final from McCooey Field on the campus of BCHS.
Central moved to 2-0 off the winning effort while Plainville fell to 1-1.
The set-up was perfect in the seventh as Central’s Mikey McMahon reached base via a ground-out error and then went to second on a wild pitch by Plainville pitcher Sean Eagan.
From there, Aiden Lopez (1-for-2, triple, run) walked and the duo each advanced a base on a passed ball.
With the runners on second and third, Stafford – the ninth batter of Central’s lineup – made it academic with his single to center to ice the game.
He ended up with both of Central’s RBI that day from the bottom slot of the order.
“To be honest with you, I don’t have a bottom of the order,” said Central coach Bunty Ray. “I just have to put the guys there. I have as much faith down there as I do [with the top of the lineup]. Last year, Christian was a three-hitter. Aiden was at the top somewhere. Right now, we’re just kind of moving guys around on what we think we can do to put a lot of pressure on the [opposing] team.”
Central pitcher Nate Pirog (5 IP, 4 hits, 7Ks) had a tremendous outing though he didn’t factor into the ultimate decision.
Oscar Kuzniar threw a scoreless sixth and seventh inning to seize the win for the Rams.
Lost in the effort was an impressive performance by Eagan (6 IP, 2 runs, 4 Ks, 1 BB) who only allowed just five hits and kept his team in it until the end.
“I am proud of him. He competed today,” said Plainville coach Lou Mandeville of Eagan. “You could see it in his eyes. He’s a focused guy on the mound and he had a few pitches working today so he was able to keep hitters off balanced a little bit.”
“And I thought we did a good job playing defense behind him.”
Credit belonged to Plainville’s Mike Bakaysa (1-of-2, double) who drilled three balls to the outfield to keep the Central fielders in motion.
Bakaysa was robbed of an extra base hit in the sixth inning as Central centerfielder Joe Gratta tracked down the ball, making a sensational catch that would have otherwise netted another run for the visiting contingent.
“He made a hell of a catch in centerfield,” said Mandeville of Gratta. “That was a great catch.”
In the top of the first, Plainville’s Charlie Hills drew a one out walk but never advanced while Central put together a two-out rally in the bottom of the tilt.
Kuzniar flipped in a single and Frank Spirito got plunked with a pitch to put two on.
But Egan fanned Ryan Ring to end the threat as the contest remained scoreless through one.
Central’s Mike Allan made a slick throw from shortstop to get a hustling Tate Stevens going to first to end the Blue Devils’ portion of the second.
But the game was delayed for over thirty minutes with one out in the bottom of the second over a very scary situation.
The home plate umpire took a ball off the left wrist and was forced to leave the contest (during the delay, Kuzniar was putting on some sort of photo shoot near the Central dugout).
After a replacement umpire was found, play resumed and so did the scoreless affair.
Pirog was on fire in the third, whiffing the side, as the Rams were looking to draw first blood.
“He’s always solid,” said Ray of Pirog. “He’ll keep you in the game, but you’ve got to make plays and score some runs. I gave him credit. He wasn’t allowed a lot of run support. He was just going out there and doing his job and making sure that we were in the game long enough to win it.”
Central went down in order in the third before Bakaysa smashed a double to deep center with one away in the fourth.
But Pirog wiggled out of trouble as the Rams came to bat in the bottom of the fourth of the 0-0 stalemate.
Ring zipped out a single down the left field line with two outs but never advanced while Plainville put another runner in scoring position in the fifth.
Stevens nabbed a one-out single to start a rally and Gavin Cooke bunted him over to second, but Pirog buckled down, striking out Dylan Cianci for his seventh K to end the threat.
Central went for broke in the bottom of the fifth and with one away, Lopez slapped a ball into deep right.
The fielder slipped a bit, and the race was on as Lopez chugged around second base and easily made it to third.
From there, Stafford grounded out at third, but Lopez was already halfway home.
The ball went to first base to get Stafford for the second out, but the RBI tally propelled Central to a 1-0 edge.
Gratta then advanced to first on a passed ball strikeout and went to second on a botched pickoff attempt.
Central’s Anthony Santilli followed by slipping in an infield hit that died on the third base side of the mound, but Gratta attempted to score off his wide turn at third.
But he was gunned down at the plate as the contest remained a 1-0 game.
In the top of the sixth, Plainville’s Mike Ouellette and Hills had back-to-back hits and off a passed ball at the plate, each runner advanced a base.
But the Central catcher threw the ball into left field, Ouellette came home and suddenly, it was a brand-new game at 1-1.
“I’ve got to give Plainville all the credit in the world,” said Ray. “They’re scrappy. They battled us the whole game. Last year, we had a hard time with them early in the season. Lou is doing a good job.”
Kuzniar quickly relieved Pirog and with no one out, Bakaysa absolutely drilled a ball to center, but Gratta never gave up on it.
He eventually snared it out of the air for a huge game-saving out.
“The play of the game was Gratta,” said Ray of the catch. “He went a long way to go get that. Last year, we had a hard time in the outfield. This year, I love my outfield. The way they go get the ball, that’s a luxury. It’s good to see we have that option out there.”
To end Plainville’s sixth, Seth Lizon walked, Matt Bonney bounced into a fielder’s choice and Keith Lagassey was tagged out off a passed ball third strike as the game remained a 1-1 affair while Kuzniar did not allow a hit over his two innings of relief.
Kuzniar started off the bottom of the sixth getting plunked by a pitch as pinch-runner Joe Mauriello made it all the way to third base before getting stranded.
The Central pitcher made things interesting with two away in the seventh, hitting consecutive Plainville batters with a pitch, but with two on, Hills grounded out to Kuzniar on the mound.
Kuzniar legged out the play, sliding into first base for the last out and with the showdown still notched at 1-1, it was time for game-winning heroics by the Rams in the bottom of the seventh.
And the Central third basemen finished things off with his hot shot through the infield as the home team wrangled up a 2-1 win over Plainville to remain perfect on the campaign.
“It’s a game we had a chance to win,” said Mandeville. “If you’re coming to watch a game it was a good game to watch. And I tell [my players] when we get on the bus somewhere, our job is to go out there and compete and give ourselves a chance to win.”
“And we had that.”
Ray saw his team earn a big home victory to open its slate of games in Bristol and the veteran coach knows that the offense will come around as the year progresses.
“If we can get certain things going, get baserunners on – that’s how we won our first game against Hall – stealing bases and getting timely hits,” said Ray. “We have to continue to do that until we can get our bats going.”
Bristol Central Baseball – CCC South Action
BRISTOL CENTRAL 2, PLAINVILLE 1
from McCooey Field, BCHS
Plainville (1-1) 000 001 0 – 1 4 2
Bristol Central (2-0) 000 010 1 – 2 5 1
Battery – Plainville: Sean Eagan & Tate Stevens; Bristol Central: Nate Pirog, Oscar Kuzniar (6) & Ryan Ring.
WP – Oscar Kuzniar (Bristol Central); LP – Sean Eagan (Plainville)
Plainville Batting
2B – Mike Bakaysa
3B – None
HR – None
Bristol Central Batting
2B – None
3B – Aiden Lopez
HR – None
HBP – Frank Spirito (BC) by Eagan, Oscar Kuzniar (BC) by Eagan, Jayden Castro (P) by Kuzniar, Mike Ouellette (P) by Kuzniar.
Records: Bristol Central 2-0 overall; Plainville 1-1.
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