By Michael Letendre

At the completion of the 2002 Connecticut American Legion Baseball season, Bristol head coach Jim Ziogas called it a career.

When Ziogas took charge in 1994, he completely changed the culture of the program.

The mentor ended up winning 307 games and brought the 1997 squad to the American Legion World Series, earning a fourth-place finish.

His coaching efforts were simply tremendous and the program, heading into 2003, needed a similar mentor.

Enter Spec Monico who kept all those positive attributes of the program going and was another tremendous icon for Post 2.

He eventually brought the program to the World Series as well in 2008 and each and every season, Bristol was always a top Zone 1 team and a state power under the crafty Monico.

During his debut season of 2003, Bristol had to deal with Simsbury in Zone 1 – a program that ended up winning its first ever state championship in the sport by the completion of the postseason tournament.

Post 84 was able to defeat Post 2 six times over seven games that season – easier said than done against Bristol’s talented and well-coached program.

And after grueling regular season bouts, it was time for the postseason.

Over the years, the top two teams over all eight zones were automatically entered into the state tournament fray.

But in terms of postseason qualification in 2003, only the top squad from each zone had an automatic bye into the tournament.

That meant Simsbury was in while Bristol, the Zone 1 runner-up, had to earn its way into the field of 16.

In 2003, Post 2 had the second highest winning percentage in all the state, going 29-5 overall in regular season play and 24-4 in Zone 1 confrontations – a ledger that would have won just about any other zone.

And just over twenty years ago, on July 27, 2003, Bristol took on a strong Willimantic squad with the winner advancing to the big dance.

And some way, somehow, Simsbury and Bristol both made it to the championship round.

For the seventh time that season, the squads battled one another – this time over a mega main event.

However, before that title bout commenced, it was Willimantic in the way of Bristol’s state tournament qualification.

The showdown against Bristol took place from Rotary Field in South Windsor – the same place that Post 2 finished up its postseason jaunt in 2023.

Bristol smacked around Willimantic by a 15-4 final over nine innings of play (don’t forget, all state tournament games went nine innings back in the day).

“There was some pressure on us today,” said Monico to Michael Letendre of the Bristol Press. “People back in Bristol expect us to be in the state tournament on Saturday.”

It was Post 2’s 30th win of the season as Frank Rossi dominated from the plate.

Rossi, manning the leadoff position, went 3-of-5 from the dish which included a huge three-run home run.

He added three RBI to the till, Chris Klepps went 4-of-6 while Matt Arburr was 3-for-4 with four RBI from the plate.

Tony Jones had three hits while teammates Kyle Gravlin, Bryan Hazelton and Chris Taylor all smoked out two hits. 

Dru Sgro and Rex Cone – who hardly ever struck out in American Legion play – both added hits for Bristol.

Post 2 nabbed 15 total hits overall to earn a postseason berth.

“It was just a hitter’s day today,” said Monico. “We scored a lot of runs and that took the pressure off the defense.”

On the mound for Bristol, veteran Tom Holtz went eight strong innings, allowing nine hits, four earned runs while fanning two as the chucker moved to 8-1 overall.

And when Willimantic did hit the ball, a certain three-pack of outfielders didn’t allow much to fall in.

“Tommy [Holtz] came out and did exactly what he had to do today,” said Monico. “He kept the ball down and when he didn’t, Rossi, Jones, and Sgro collectively ran the balls down.”

Bristol trailed 3-1 after an inning-and-a-half before Post 2 kicked in eight runs in the third to make it a 10-3 game through three completed frames.

The locals added five runs in the fourth, allowed Willimantic to tally a single in the seventh and after Rossi pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, Bristol zipped up a 15-4 victory to advance to state tournament play

Simsbury again

Both Bristol and Simsbury ran the gauntlet over state tournament action and in the finals, it was an all Zone 1 championship series.

Due to a previous loss to Simsbury in tournament play, Post 2 had to defeat Post 84 twice in order to win the title from Muzzy Field in Bristol.

It was Simsbury winning in the end as the squad snuck by Bristol 7-6 – seizing the championship.

With the loss, Post 2 fell to 35-7 overall which was a tremendous first year showing for the program under Monico.