Southington battles for coach; on Sunday, they’ll celebrate his life
MIDDLETOWN — Rain or shine, there will be a service to celebrate Charlie Lembo’s life Sunday at Southington High School. Decent weather, the event will be outside. Rain means inside the gymnasium.
There will be no state championship to celebrate. Not this year. Too many things went wrong for Southington in the first six innings to make up for a dramatic seventh.
A batted ball hit a Southington runner only inches before he touched third and would have rounded the base to score. What appeared to be a sure out at the plate turned into a run by Warde’s Roman DiGiacomo when an errant throw skipped to the backstop. There was a play immediately before when DiGiacomo was called safe at third. It was mighty close.
“The ball was not bouncing our way,” Southington interim coach Stan Switala said after his team finally had fallen, 7-5, to Warde in the Class LL championship at Palmer Field.
A no-out wallop by Jackson Rusiecki that looked like it was going to carry for a two-run homer in the sixth — “I thought it was gone,” Switala said — bounced off the left-center field fence. Runners would be stranded at second and third after Zach Broderick caught Justin Chiulli looking, Manny Izzo swinging and a fly out.
Little things led to bigger things and, eventually, Warde had a six-run lead heading into the seventh. It was over. And then it wasn’t. Rusiecki lined a two-run single to center. Chiulli cracked a two-run double to right center. The third-base stands at Palmer came alive. Was there a baseball miracle comeback about to happen?
“I just wanted to get to 7-5, we did, with a runner on,” Switala said. “We have guys who can hit home runs. We had a chance. These kids didn’t die. I’ll be honest, I was thinking about who’s pitching the next inning. I’m thinking we’re going to tie this game up.”
Southington didn’t. Izzo went down swinging, and so would Southington.
“I hope we left a good image with that last-minute rally,” Rusiecki said. “We wanted to finish it with a win, but I couldn’t be prouder of the guys.”
Neither could Charlie’s widow.
“It was tremendous,” Deb Lembo said. “They rallied. My daughter and I were with Sal Romano (the former Southington star and major leaguer who recently retired) at the end. We were cheering and had hope until the last pitch. They gave it their all. And it was awesome.”
Deb and daughter Meghan made it to every playoff game this spring. Son Chris made it up from North Carolina for a game. Many of the extended family was on hand Saturday.
“When we were there,” Deb said, “it was all focus on the game. It was for the team. It was about the team.”
On Sunday in Southington, it will be for Charlie, about Charlie. Lembo died May 28 after a year-long battle with colon cancer. He was 61.
As a high school athlete, Lembo’s accomplishments are remembered in the East Haven High Hall of Fame. He pitched and played shortstop at Providence. He made a career in insurance and with Lembo Financial Group. He followed his baseball passion as a coach with American Legion and Quinnipiac. In 2010, he settled in as Southington coach.
Deb was introduced to Charlie through his college roommate.
“I met him at a Red Sox game,” she said. “I should have known. Our first date was a round of golf. I should have known that, too.”
Family vacations would be planned around both.
“He loved baseball,” Deb said. “When you think about it, how many people do you know who are doing what they really love?”
They were married 32 years.
Over a decade, Lembo took Southington to four Class LL finals. No. 5 since 2011 was a triumph of the spirit. Switala was named interim coach before the start of the season. You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that interim tag will soon be removed.
Switala played at Eastern Michigan before pro ball and was a head high school coach in California. He was a Mets scout for a time. He has been the owner and head coach of Top Speed Collegiate. Originally from Long Island, he also was a retired cop looking at a return East.
It started with a phone
conversation in February. This was before Lembo was diagnosed this past May.
“I didn’t know where I was going to move in Connecticut,” Switala said. “I talked to Coach Lembo. He said you need to come and be my pitching coach.
“I talked to him for three hours on the phone. He’s one of the best baseball minds. Being a head coach for a long time and then being an assistant is tough. He’s the only guy in the state I actually wanted to work for.”
Switala arrived in state last June as a pitching coach. An interim, standing in for a legend, is a challenge.
“Trying to install some of your own coaching philosophies and also not try to get rid of some of their legacies and tendencies can be tough,” Switala said. “In the long run, it’s baseball. I truly enjoyed coaching the guys. I loved being with them. It was tough but also rewarding to get here.”
After Southington games this spring, there would be calls after games.
“It would be, ‘Here’s what happened, Coach,’ ” Switala said. “He’d be really into it. Just talking baseball with him. We don’t have that anymore.
“He left us with a great program. He gave everything he had to the town, to the school, to the players.”
What kind of coach was Charlie Lembo?
“My junior year was first year for varsity, because of COVID,” said Rusiecki, headed to North Carolina. “He always had faith in me. When I struggled, he wouldn’t just sub me out instantly. He talked to me. Encouraged me. I talked to him many times not just about baseball, but life in general.”
This kind of coach … “He meant everything to me,” said starting pitcher Vincent Borghese. “I’ve known him since I was 6 or 7 at baseball camp. Even though it was in elementary
school, I showed up freshman year, he knew my name. He was very supportive. He knew everything about baseball. A great guy.”
Lembo, Borghese said, was able to come out to a practice once this spring.
“He wanted to come out,” Borghese said. “I think we learned don’t give up, even in the last inning. There was a lot of team bonding. We hung out together. We learned about each other. When we got our lineup set in stone, we knew we were going to go.”
They would go to Palmer Field on Saturday where they fought to the bottom of the seventh of the state championship.
And they will all gather Sunday at 5 p.m.
“Charlie would have been really proud of how well they did this year,” Deb Lembo said. “They really played with a lot of heart. It felt like they were playing with a real focus and a purpose, if you will. Not that they wouldn’t always play that way, but it felt like it was above and beyond.
“I knew Charlie had a big impact, but we have heard from so many people over the last few weeks, I began to understand how big that impact was. We want to share the stories. We want to spend time with the people who shared his journey. It was a life cut short, but I like to think of it as a life welllived.”
Borghese, who was dropped by a line drive below the ankle, finished the third inning before Switala turned to a reliever. He’ll probably have a limp Sunday, but his intentions are straight and true.
“I’m going to honor him,” he said. “I’m going to honor Mr. Baseball in Southington.”
And so they will, rain or shine.