Middletown drops 4th straight, schedule heats up

MIDDLETOWN — Will the offense match the consistency of its pitching? Will the defense clean up some of its sloppy play? When will the team lock in its identity, and will it play with some fire?

These are some questions facing the Middletown Post 75 American Legion team as the Zone 3 portion of their schedule kicks into high gear this week. The 75ers play two doubleheaders — Monday at Wallingford Post 187 and Thursday at Palmer Field against their rival, Meriden Post 45.

Middletown’s 4-0 loss Sunday at Palmer Field to the Hit Club, a travel team out of Waterbury, was its fourth straight following a 3-0 start to the season. Guilford swept a zone doubleheader from the 75ers on Saturday, 3-2 and 6-1.

Counting last week’s 3-0 loss to Cromwell RCP, Middletown has scored just three runs in those four losses.

“I expected to be a good hitting team this year, and that doesn’t mean we won’t be, but we’re just not being as selective at the plate as we should be,” 75ers coach Tim D’Aquila said after the loss to Waterbury. “Our pitching is holding up pretty well.

“Probably our lack of energy is the most bothersome thing to me.”

Sunday’s game summed up the challenges currently facing the 75ers. The pitching was good enough to beat Waterbury, but the hitting wasn’t there and the defense made three errors that led to three of the four runs being unearned.

Middletown had just two hits, eight baserunners and two scoring chances. With two outs in the third, they loaded the bases on walks, but a strikeout ended the inning. In the sixth, Cal Pitruzzello hit a leadoff single and stole second. After a one-out walk to Luke Garofalo, the 75ers went strikeout and flyout.

Pitruzzello, by the way, is hitting a team-best .444 in 20 atbats, with five runs scored and five steals.

“We faced this Waterbury team in the fall. This isn’t a scrub team either,” D’Aquila said. “They’re very good, they are disciplined and they pull kids from a lot of places. We have to play a little more unselfish.”

D’Aquila gave six pitchers some work in the non-zone game against Waterbury. The first two, left-hander A.J. Kleczkowski and righty Ryan Hurlbert, will start in the doubleheader against Wallingford.

“This will be their first zone starts with the program, so it’s going to be interesting,” the coach said. “Last year we had several horses on the mound who could strike people out. The pitchers we have this year (including Sean Lenehan and Garofalo) aren’t like that, so we’re going to have to play good defense and make some plays.”

Lenehan (1-1) pitched good enough to win Saturday’s opener against Guilford, allowing only one unearned run over seven innings. D’Aquila had to dig into his roster to fill out the lineup card because he benched a slew of players for violating team rules.

In the second game, D’Aquila said the 6-1 final could have been as close as 2-1 if not for his defense committing several errors.

Guilford leads Zone 3 in the earlygoing at 3-0, followed by Southington and Madison at 2-0. Wallingford is 1-1 in zone games and Meriden 1-2.