By Michael Letendre 

HARTFORD – The Bristol Greeners of the Greater Hartford Twilight Baseball League nearly roped up its second win this season in its showdown against the Record-Journal Expos this past Thursday night.

Leading by a 2-0 going into the sixth inning, the Expos notched five straight runs – including four in the final frame – to steal away a 5-2 win over Bristol from Dunkin’ Park in Hartford.

Bristol (1-14) had its entire roster at the game and battled the Expos (11-6) tooth and nail to the end on the beautiful field at Dunkin’ Park.

“It felt great. I feel like everyone rose to the occasion,” said Bristol coach Trevor Mays. “Everyone really looks forward to this game. Everyone is really locked in to put their best game on the field today.” 

“And everyone did for the most part until the very end.” 

Neither team used its starting pitchers for long but both the Expos Charlie Hesseltine – a veteran of GHTBL wars – and Bristol’s Trevor Nohilly went toe-to-toe over what turned into a bit of a stalemate.

Hesseltine went two innings, allowed two hits while striking out four.

Nohilly, throwing a little heat along the way, went three frames, gave up only one hit and fanned two over a big-time performance.

Nohilly left the game through three innings with a 2-0 edge in hand.

“Whenever we’re allowed to come out and play in a beautiful ball field like this, you have to remember how lucky we are,” said the Greeners AJ Lorenzetti. “Trevor did a great job of finding a way to get everyone into the game. Trevor had a great start, pitched very well and gave us a chance to win.” 

Jon Pierce added a blooper for Bristol in the first inning while Felix Gutierrez nabbed a single in the second, but the game was tied at 0-0 going into the third tilt.

However, everything changed for Bristol over that particular inning.

After Bristol’s Sean Borden made a Derek Jeter type backwards jump-throw to rob AJ Hendrickson of a hit, he led off the third with a walk.

And then Josh Nohilly walked as well, putting men on first and second base with one out.

From there, Lorenzetti (2-for-3, RBI) smacked a single to score Borden and when Noah Hickey was plunked in the helmet by a pitch from Brendan O’Connell, the bases were loaded.

Finally, Matt Fusco’s single to center scored Josh Nohilly to snare that second run.

After Nohilly left the game, in line for a huge victory if the Bristol could have held on, Desmond Nigel-Mason threw a scoreless fourth while Lorenzetti gave up one hit but fanned the final batter he faced to keep the lead intact.

The Greeners bats were silent in the fourth and fifth innings before Meriden finally got on the scoreboard in the sixth.

The Expos Jeff Massicotte walked, stole second and scored on an RBI single by Hendrickson to chop the deficit to 2-1.

Gutierrez singled for the second time for Bristol and when Jose Jimenez beat out an infield hit, the bases were loaded with two away in the bottom of the sixth.

But one fly out later, the Expos went for four runs to ice the game.

Massicotte ended up posting the go-ahead hit, an RBI double to right field, to stake Meriden to a 3-2 edge in the game.

That deficit eventually grew to 5-2 as Bristol ended things in the bottom of the seventh.

Bryan Capezzone’s stand up double to the corner in left started a rally but two outs later by pitcher JD Tyler, Meriden hung on to win, 5-2.

“We kind of run this like an All-Star game,” said Mays. “It’s unfortunate when stuff like this happens when I put guys in positions they aren’t used to and whatnot. [If this was a] normal game, I think maybe this would be different but lots of things are different if it were a normal game.”    

Greater Hartford Twilight Baseball League – Special Challenge from Dunkin’ Park 

RECORD-JOURNAL EXPROS 5, BRISTOL GREENERS 2 

from Dunkin’ Park, Hartford 

Record-Journal Expos (11-6)         000 001 4 – 5 5 1  

Bristol Greeners (1-14)                     002 000 0 – 2 8 4 

WP – Jeff Massicotte (Expos); LP – Devin Kararian (Greeners); S – JD Tyler (Expos)    

Expos Batting 

2B – Jeff Massicotte, Kyle Hartenstein 

3B – None 

HR – None 

Greeners Batting 

2B – Bryan Capezzone

3B – None 

HR – None 

Records: Record-Journal Expos 11-6 overall; Bristol Greeners 1-14