By Michael Letendre 

FARMINGTON – When the Bristol Eastern baseball team can get its bat on the ball, forcing opponents to react defensively, good things usually happen.

That was the story on Wednesday night when the Lancers dropped overmatched Farmington by a 16-7 final from Tunxis Meade Park.

Eastern moved to 5-11 on the campaign while Farmington fell to 6-11.   

The Lancers blasted out 16 hits, took advantage of seven Farmington errors, and received solid pitching from Ryan Maglio and Jonny Montgomery to snare the win. 

Leading the offense for the Lancers was Ben D’Amato, who had four hits, including a double, while scoring twice and driving in six RBI over his biggest effort of the campaign.  

Maglio had three hits, along with a double, and drove in two.  

Kyle Babin, Owen Myers, and Rio Fernandez each generated two hits apiece while Maglio was clutch on the hill for the visiting aggression. 

Maglio pitched the first five innings before reaching the pitch count limit, earning the win in the process.

He allowed three hits, four runs (three earned), struck out eight while walking five.  

Montgomery came on in relief in the sixth frame following a Maglio walk to open the inning, pitching the final two frames.

He allowed three hits, three runs (one earned) while striking out two over a solid hold. 

Eastern set the tone in the first inning, scoring two runs.  

With two outs, D’Amato and Maglio both singled and came around to score via two Farmington infield errors, making it a 2-0 game. 

The Lancers then added four runs in the second, six runs in the fifth, and four final runs in the seventh to score its season high of 16.

In the second stanza, Eastern batted around, taking advantage of three additional Farmington miscues, scoring four times to seize a 6-0 lead.  D’Amato had a two-run single in the inning as the River Hawks had a lot of catching up to do. 

Farmington put together three hits in the bottom of the third to trim the deficit to 6-2.  

In an odd play, with runners on first and third, Farmington’s Tom Keough broke for second, got caught in a run down, but Bryan LaDuke scored from third on the play while Keough was awarded second base on an interference call – eventually leading to two runs.

However, the Kingstreeters were back at it during the third frame.

D’Amato opened the inning with a single to right, and Maglio followed with a long double to left to put runners on second and third with no outs.

However, two strikeouts and a pop out ended the threat, but the offense would come later in the game.  

In the fourth frame, the Lancers struck for six runs on five hits – seizing a 12-3 lead.  

Following a walk, an infield error, and a hit batter that loaded the bases with no one out, Connor Cyr’s slow roller past the mound went for a base-hit to score a run.  

D’Amato then cleared the bases with a long double to right center, notching three runs, as the lead was 10-3 in Eastern’s favor.  

Maglio followed with a single up the middle to score pinch runner Mike Roalf, and Caleb Molinsky’s infield hit scored pinch runner Cooper Porrini as Eastern went up 12-3.   

Farmington scored twice in the sixth to trim the deficit to 12-5 but the Lancers added insurance tallies in the seventh. 

Eastern scored its four runs over the final frame on just two hits.

The bases were loaded with no outs following an infield single by Fernandez, an outfield error, and a walk to load the bases up once again.  Montgomery drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly and then a single by Babin reloaded the bases.

Both Gabe White and pinch hitter Matthew Harkey were hit by pitches, plating two additional runs, and then the final tally came on a sacrifice fly from D’Amato to give the Lancers its ultimate 16-7 triumph and victory number five.  

Bristol Eastern Baseball – CCC Interdivisional Action 

BRISTOL EASTERN 16, FARMINGTON 7

from Tunxis Meade Park, Farmington   

Bristol Eastern (5-11) 240 060 4 – 16 16 4

Farmington (6-11)       002 102 2 – 7 6 7 

Battery: Bristol Eastern: Ryan Maglio, Jonny Montgomery (6) & Rio Fernandez; Farmington: Arie DeLuca, Sanjay Patel (5), Connor McCullough( 6), Noah Grosso (7) & Ty Nogiec.

WP: Ryan Maglio (Bristol Eastern); LP: Arie DeLuca (Farmington)

Bristol Eastern Batting   

2B – Owen Myers, Ryan Maglio, Ben D’Amato, Kyle Babin 

3B – None  

HR – None   

Farmington Batting   

2B – None 

3B – None   

HR – None   

Records: Bristol Eastern 5-11 overall; Farmington 6-11.