Seeing some positives in tough season

It wasn’t the best of springs for city baseball teams, although the rest of the area clubs did quite well.

Xavier finished the season in a tailspin, losing seven in a row to finish at 6-14. Middletown also has a losing record and will finish 7-13 with a win over Enfield in its final game, or will end up with exactly the same record as Xavier.

But at Middletown there are positives. The team is loaded with underclassmen. In the extra-inning loss to Berlin last week, MHS started only two seniors and five sophomores.

After an 0-9 start, the Blue Dragons played over .500 the rest of the season. Sure, there were some not very good teams in that stretch, but a win is a win and over the last half of the season, Josh Cofield’s team won more than it lost.

With a 10-9 loss to Northwest Catholic, a close loss to Portland and an extra-inning loss to Berlin, one can argue that with a little bit more luck, the team might have broken even on the season.

At Vinal Tech, the Hawks turned in the city’s only winning season at 11-9. Vinal will be the Class M state tournament.

Around the area every team was .500 or better. Haddam-Killingworth (15-4 before Sunday’s game with Ellington), Coginchaug (12-8), East Hampton (11-9), Cromwell (13-7), Valley Regional (10-10) and Portland (12-8) show that baseball is alive and well in this part of the state.

Hale-Ray is 8-11, but the eight wins qualify the Little Noises for the Class S tournament.

It would be nice if next season, MHS and Xavier could join the postseason party.

Softball doings

Middletown continues to demonstrate it’s the best team around. That 6-5 win over Seymour last week was one of the best softball games I’ve ever seen. The 18-1 Blue Dragons will likely finish in the top four in

Class LL — they have one game left with Berlin — thus guaranteeing home games for the first three rounds of the Class LL tourney. That is assuming they keep winning.

Mercy will be in the Class L tournament, but won’t finish above .500. The Tigers were 8-8 before losing their last two and they have one game left with Lauralton Hall.

Hale-Ray (16-4), Haddam-Killingworth (145), East Hampton (145), Valley Regional (127), Coginchaug (10-9) and Cromwell (8-12) will be in the postseason.

While Cromwell is under .500, the Panthers were looking at a lost season just at while ago at 3-12. But Angelo Morello’s team then went out and won five games in a row to qualify for the tournament. Kids responded to the pressure, huh?

Only Vinal at 3-16 won’t be playing next week.

Kids going to college

Many of us spend a lot of time — and more than a few dollars — watching kids play at the high schools in the area. But in the phrase “high school sports” the most important word is school.

We are blessed to have very good high schools, both public and private, in the area. It’s fun to cover the kids, and it’s also fun to tell you about the colleges the kids will be attending.

Note that not all of the kids herein named will be playing a sport at college — although some will — but the important thing is they are going. I know, college isn’t for everyone, but for those who want to go, it looks like it’s happening.

Here’s wishing all the kids great experiences and happy and fulfilling lives.

One more note. While there is a sport listed next to a kid’s name, she may well have played other sports. In most cases, it is a coach of a particular sport who provided the information.

From Mercy: Taylor Tristine (golf, Providence), Stephanie Vasile (swimming, Eastern Connecticut State), Allison Vignati (tennis, St. Joseph), Blake Braman (field hockey, Endicott), Brittany Hall (equestrian, University of Vermont), Elise Hallstead-Williams (cross-country and track, Brandeis), Lauren Inglis (track, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences), Kylie McCarthy (lacrosse, King’s College).

Also, Francesca Moore (cross country and track, Salve Regina, Megan Parker (track, Bryant), Mary Pitruzzello (track, Stonehill), Katelyn Richardson (soccer, Merrimack), Bridgid Selfors (cross-country and track, Tulane) and Michelle Theilgard (softball, Stonehill).

From Middletown High: Derek Frame (golf, Bryant), Jason Gessaro (golf, University of New Haven), Rickey Moore (crew, UConn), Jonathan Rosenblum (crew, Quinnipiac), Grace Delmastro (crew, University of Delaware), Maddie Hart (crew, Merrimack), Jordan Legendre (crew, McGill University in Montreal), Katie Marx (crew, American University).

Also, Sofie MarszalekBaldyga (crew, UMassAmherst), Jackie Pawlak (crew, Clark), Sean Fuller, Courtney Jandreau and Diamond Regnier (crew, Middlesex CC), Trevor Getek (lacrosse and football, Fairfield), T.J. Hummel (lacrosse, University of Hartford), Stephen Vaughn (ice hockey and lacrosse, Sacred Heart), Kevin Michaud (lacrosse and football, University of New Haven), Terry Gaylord (swim, lacrosse, Marist).

Also Mitchell Cooper (lacrosse, CCSU), Tyler Bonvouloir (lacrosse, Rochester Institute of Technology), Kayleen Deegan (lacrosse, University of New Haven) Taylor Winzer (golf, UConn), Dwayne Hunt, Ethan Goodhue and Kevin Richards (Ultimate, CCSU), Jenna Lentini (Ultimate, SCSU), Jacob Forrester (swimming, Monmouth), Chase Corvo (Ultimate, UConn), Colin Hobbs (Ultimate, Keene State), Shane Rascati (Ultimate, University of New Haven).

As schools and coaches share the good news with us, we’ll share it here.

Acceptance

Diana Taurasi, the former UConn star and WNBA player, was married last week. She married Penny Taylor from Australia. There was hardly a ripple as Taurasi and her wife were wed in Phoenix, Ariz. Good. I speak at high schools and colleges on issues related to tolerance and acceptance. I spoke at Bacon Academy in Colchester twice last week. The kids — all freshmen — were bewildered by the stories of discrimination. They talked about out LGBT kids at their school, saying that it was a non-issue and seemed genuinely puzzled that anyone cared.

It was clear they wondered why same-sex marriage or gay rights would be any kind of issue. “Why would anyone be homophobic?,” one boy asked while most of the rest of the kids nodded in agreement.

Why indeed.

Condolences

Richard Murray died recently. Murray was a familiar sight at local sports venues as his two sons, Rick and Sean, played sports at Xavier and summer baseball. Murray was a football and track star at Middletown High graduating from MHS is 1958. A good and decent man was he. To his wife Maureen and all who were his relatives and friends, deepest sympathies from here.

Former local athlete Rob Graham died last week. Graham attended Xavier High and transferred to Middletown High. He was a diver and I remember so often his dives were perilously close to the end of the board. Judges like that, but made me wince almost every time he dived.

He was on the MHS swim team the same time as my son Chris. To be gone at age 37 is far, far too soon. To his family and to his teammates at MHS, I can only offer the hope that he is in a far better place, a place where all his dives will be 10s.

Here and there

This is the week of league playoffs in high schools ... the Southern Connecticut Conference holds it championship track meet today at Lyman Hall and the SCC and others hold playoffs in most spring sports over the next several days.

The pairings for the softball and baseball state tournaments will be released Friday ... Xavier’s lacrosse team won its opening round game in the SCC playoffs Saturday and plays at Fairfield Prep Tuesday in the semifinal round ... Xavier’s volleyball team plays at Cheshire in the SCC playoffs Wednesday at 6 p.m.

WCNXradio,com, the local Internet station, is putting together an ambitious fall football schedule ...some of the games will be televised in real time ... the press boxes at Xavier’s McHugh Field, MHS’ Rosek-Skubel Stadium and at South Windsor are able to accommodate the TV apparatus, but Palmer Field cannot ... games not on TV will be on Internet radio and the TV games will be simulcast on radio. .

Sign the Apocalypse is upon us: Douglas Knight, 59, and his son Andrew Knight, 18, a baseball player at New Canaan High, were arrested for serving alcohol to minors at a party ... uhhh, assuming the allegations are true, what were they thinking? ... especially the dad ... just don’t get it.

I have a suggestion for reducing health care costs ... instead of anesthesia, show tapes of the NBA playoffs to those awaiting surgery ... the patient will go to sleep in no time.

From the Gimme a Bat Dept . ... can Masahiro Tanaka pitch much worse? ... since he went the distance in beating Boston 3-0, he hasn’t been able to get anyone out ... my guess is he’s hurt ... either that, or he just stinks ... if he doesn’t turn it around, the Yankees are in deep trouble, no matter the offense.

Bosox John Farrell has to be in trouble ... the Red Sox have been awful, but boys and girls, taking Big Papi out of the middle of that lineup changed everything ... Papi retires, Farrell walks the plank.

Took in a Yard Goats’ game Saturday night ... it remains a great park, but they keep running out of food ... two weeks ago, they ran out of hot dogs ... Saturday they ran out of ice cream ... can’t have that happen at a ballpark, just can’t ... oh, the Yard Goats won 6-5 and boys and girls, the place is a launching pad as home runs fly out of this bandbox ... which is all good.

Oh, is the NHL still playing hockey?