Stratford’s Duffy tosses his second consecutive no-hitter

STRATFORD — Stratford Post 42 ace Brendan Duffy did not think he had his best stuff. North Haven Post 76 might beg to differ.

Mixing his pitches perfectly throughout the game, Duffy tossed his second straight no-hitter, defeating North Haven 1-0 in Zone II action at Penders Field in Stratford Saturday morning.

“Honestly, I was just trying to pitch to contact,” Duffy said. “I did not think I had my best stuff. My team came up big behind me and made all the plays. I was able to spot my fastball and get ahead. That makes it easy. I have my brother (Ryan) behind the plate.”

The no-hitter was the second in a row for Duffy, who followed up a masterful performance against Orange with yet another one on Saturday. Duffy struck out nine and walked four against North Haven.

The win also helped keep Stratford’s playoff hopes alive as Post 42 improved to 12-7, remaining two games behind Orange in the loss column in the bid for the final playoff spot in Zone II action.

“That is back-to-back no-hitters for him,” Stratford coach Mike DellaVecchia said of Duffy. “When he is on the mound, he makes us one of the better teams around, if not the best team. He just throws strikes. He knows how to pitch. He never gets frustrrated out there. He is very composed.”

North Haven, on the flip side, suffered a hit in its bid to win the zone, falling to 12-4, and dropping two games behind zone leader Hamden in the loss column.

“Our guy (Luca Lawrence) did a great job for us, but they were able to hit the ball to the right side earlier, which helped them produce a run,” Noth Haven coach Tim Binkoski said. “We had a couple of opportunities early, but he (Duffy) made some big time pitches to get some big time outs. This is a tough loss for us.”

Post 42 scored the only run it needed in the second inning when Tom Fernandes led off with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice by Ryan Nelson, third on a grounder to Lawrence by Zach Fedak, and scored on a single to right by Alex Koletar.

“Their guy (Lawrence) pitched a great game against us,” DellaVecchia said. “We were able to get the one run and Brendan made it work. We had some good at bats there, and he (Duffy) made it hold up. When he is on the mound, we are a more confident team.”

Duffy allowed a one-out walk to Dan Cannavaciolo in the first, but worked through that, retiring the next five in a row.

Luca Lawrence, who pitched a gem for North Haven Post 76 as well, walked to lead off the second, moved to second on a a sacrifice, but went no further as Duffy got two straight pop outs to end the frame.

Duffy retired five more in a row once again, before a leadoff walk to Tom Myjak in the fifth. As was the case earlier, Duffy easily got out of the inning when he sandwiched a pair of strikeouts around a sacrifice.

After a two-out walk in the sixth, Duffy retired the final four batters, including a pair of strikeouts to open the seventh, and a grounder to third by Zack Pincince to seal the no-hitter.

Lawrence, for his part, was equally impressive as he allowed just four hits and one run in the loss. Post 42 had a two-out single by Tyler Vancho in the first, and a leadoff single by Fedak in the fifth, but could not produce another run.