By Michael Letendre
The Bristol Shock, formerly known as the Bristol Knights of the Connecticut Twilight League, have made more than a couple long postseason runs in the past.
And why should things be any different for the veteran club in 2023?
After joining forces with the Southington Aftershock to form the newly minted Bristol Shock, the squad finished the regular season at 8-12 – nine games behind regular season champion Wolcott/Terryville Scrappers (17-3-1) – to earn the sixth seed in the annual CTL postseason fray.
And the sixth ranked Shock were able to stay out of the elimination bracket by spinning up a 9-7 upset victory over the third ranked Rocky Hill Rockies from Riverfront Park in Glastonbury on Friday.
That huge win will fuel the Shock into battle against the New Britain Rock Cats on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in a winner’s bracket showdown in Glastonbury.
New Britain is the second seeded program in CTL tournament play this season at 13-5-1.
And in the late game on Friday, the fifth ranked Elmer’s Angels defeated No. 4 Enfield Patriots by a 7-2 final as a couple of the top programs in the league will attempt to survive life in the elimination bracket.
Bristol must lose twice to be eliminated in postseason play
It’s double elimination for Bristol, meaning no matter what happens on Tuesday evening, the Shock will live on to play another day.
And frankly, just like every year, the winner of this tournament sometimes isn’t the team with the best regular season record.
But defending champion Wolcott/Terryville will be a tough outfit to top in August.
“We’ve had years where the dominant top team wins, and years where an underperforming regular season team comes back to run through the playoffs and take the championship,” according to a release on the CTL website. “Who’s it going to be this year? The Scrappers (previously the Black Sox) are our defending champions and finished 2023 in first [place] so everyone’s got them in their sights. Will someone knock them off or will they repeat?”
That question will be answered by the completion of the CTL postseason tournament.
Tournament to finish up from Muzzy Field
The CTL finals will once again take place from the friendly confines of Muzzy Field and the Bristol Shock hope to be part of the title picture.
Games will continue to commence from Riverfront Park until the end of this week, then transition to Muzzy Field in Bristol, starting on Monday, August 14 with an elimination game.
It should be interesting to see where the program from Bristol ends up when the playoffs are complete.
Last season, in a now ironic twist, Bristol fell to the Southington Aftershock, getting eliminated from the postseason in a showdown from Beehive Field in New Britain.
The Aftershock, started by a couple of former Bristol Knights players, joined back with Bristol for the 2023 campaign, playing well along the way.
The Knights went 11-9-2 overall in 2022 while the Aftershock was 9-13-1.
