By Michael Letendre 

BRISTOL – Part one of Bristol American Legion baseball team’s mission this weekend was completed on Friday as the locals snuck by East Hartford/Manchester by a 2-1 final.  

And the future of this team relies on the throwing arm of Caleb Molinsky. 

After each and every start, you can see the confidence grow in the youngster as Molinsky isn’t afraid of the big moment. 

With Bristol being short an arm of two, his excellent efforts have been a welcomed addition. 

“Caleb has thrown some good games for us,” said Bristol coach Jerry LaPenta of Molinsky. “He’s pitched really well. For a young kid, he’s coming into his own.” 

Off the huge triumph over EHM, Molinsky currently finds himself second on the team in wins, games started, innings pitched and total pitches. 

He also has a shutout to his name, and he’s been the biggest – and best – surprise so far this season. 

LaPenta is going to continue to call his number at the 19U level while Molinsky will still be getting in plenty of work with the junior team. 

And that junior program (10-2) has been a hit this season, providing the seniors a little relief from time to time. 

Sitting at .500 

Post 2 looked to go over .500 on Sunday when NCL and Middletown came to town for a couple Zone 3 encounters. 

NCL had a make-up from Bristol’s first home game of the season – stuck in a 6-6 stalemate through 10 innings which curfew knocked out. 

One good inning out of star chucker Ryan Maglio and an RBI hit from Bristol is what Post 2 is looking for to close out the game and turn one of its four ties into a ‘W.’ 

“We just have to win an inning and we win the game,” said LaPenta of the NCL/Bristol restart. 

Middletown was scheduled for a 1 p.m. start while the contest against former Zone 1 foe Meriden was cancelled due to the NCL restart. 

Next man up! 

Bristol can’t escape the injury bug this season as Wolcott’s Chase Belisle is suffering a midseason injury.  

Belisle twisted his ankle and could be out for 1-2 weeks. Bristol will miss his bat in the lineup. 

But LaPenta has done an incredible job bringing up players from the junior ranks and slotting them into the right spot. 

“It’s next man up,” said LaPenta. “Whosever’s here is going to play. We have two weeks left after Sunday. And there’s going to be a lot of games.” 

On Friday the Dunne boys, Josh and Joe, weren’t in the line-up but Molinsky was, and Gabe White also took some hacks at the plate, generating a hit, while Declan Schenck has been filling in at pitcher and even played left field and first base to augment the line-up. 

And each player has made big contributions to the 19U program and will continue to do so into the month of July. 

“The juniors have a lot of games,” said LaPenta. “But I’ll be picking guys depending on who they’re playing because some of those junior teams aren’t that great. So, they won’t need their whole barrage of players.” 

“We just need to navigate the waters, get to the playoffs and see what happens.”