Post 75ers are all set to open tourney

MIDDLETOWN » This has been a remarkable turn-around kind of season for Middletown’s American Legion baseball team.

Last season the 75ers were a sub-.500 club that got into the postseason only because national rules require that tourney-hosting teams — Palmer Field hosted the state tourney —be admitted to the postseason.

Once in, the 75ers won two games, but that was it as they finished far out of the money.

This season, coach Tim D’Aquila’s team finished a very strong third in Zone 3 at 22-6, two games behind Zone champion Cheshire. The 75ers open postseason play Saturday at 1 p.m. at Palmer Field against Norwalk (14-12) of Zone 4.

If Middletown wins, it will go on the road against Monroe (17-5), the second place team in Zone 5.

“Pitching and defense are our strengths,” said D’Aquila. “We have eight new players, but most of our pitching is older.”

The veteran pitchers are Scott Marks (4-2, 1.70 ERA), Sebby Amenta (3-0, 1.53) and Dan Botti (1-1, 3.71). Younger pitchers are Mike Gaboury (5-1, 1.75), Luke Garofalo (1-2, 1.45) and Sean Lenehan (4-0, 1.75). Marks has recorded 34 strikeouts and Garofalo has 32.

The 75rs hit .306 as a team in the 28 zone games.

“Cal Pitruzzello is our catalyst,” said D’Aquila. “When he’s on, we go.”

Pitruzzello is hitting .314 from the leadoff spot with 26 runs batted in. All of the starters have good numbers led by Garofalo (.427, 31 RBI), Connor Cardi (.333, 30), Tim Dickson (.289, 18), Ryan Famiglietti (.364, 14), Cole Niedmann (.300, 13), Tyler Popp (.293, 15), Ben Alonzo (.250, 20) and Billy Egan, who missed time due to injury, (.318, 6).

“Garofalo and Popp are our RBI guys and Dickson has settled into the No. 4 hole as well as being our steady hand in center field,” said D’Aquila. “By doing well at cleanup, Dickson gives protection to Popp in the lineup which leads to Cardi, who is our big surprise.”

The tourney set-up, especially in light of the pitch-count rules, heavily favors the zone champions who do not play until Tuesday. The games this weekend -all single elimination games -pits the Nos. three and four teams on Saturday. The winners of those games play the eight second-place teams on Sunday.

The survivors then play the zone champions on Tuesday and Wednesday (double header if necessary). All the games are played on the home field of the zone champions with the visitors re-

ceiving home team designation for one of the games.

The pitch count rules require days of rest depending on the number of pitches thrown. A pitcher who throws 76 or more pitches on Saturday or Sunday must have four days off. That means those pitchers cannot pitch in the bestof-three series against the zone champion.

“That makes it very hard for a number three or four team to advance,” said D’Aquila.

Another change in format this season is that zone games not played were not counted as losses for the purpose of seeding. In years past, if a team didn’t finish its season, losses were assigned. Many teams did not finish their zone schedules, which resulted in a “ripple effect” causing teams to be moved up and down in the seedings.

“This year the committee abolished that rule [that regarded unplayed games as losses],” said state director David Greenleaf. “Games that weren’t played are regarded as games not played and seeding will be done by winning percentage, which is what the CIAC does.

“Thursday was the drop dead deadline. With the pitch count rule, we cannot ask teams to play Friday and then start the tournament Saturday. If the committee feels a team is intentionally ducking games to improve its standing, we would be able to administer forfeits.”

Greenleaf went on to say that he had had discussions with all teams which did not finish their schedules and said, “I am convinced that every effort has been made to complete games. I don’t think that teams ducked games to save pitchers because all of the teams that were short games were scheduled to play Wednesday and Thursday. If teams had open dates on Thursday we would have forced them to play.”

If Middletown wins Saturday, it will play on the road Sunday at Monroe and if it wins then, it would have to defeat a zone champion in a best-of-three series to get to the double elimination tourney that opens at Palmer Field on July 22.

Four teams will come to Palmer that weekend and four teams will play at Bristol’s Muzzy Field. The winner from each location will play a best-of-three championship series at Palmer Field July 28-30.