TITANS HOPING TO QUALIFY FOR PLAYOFFS

TORRINGTON >> Forty-three games into a long Futures Collegiate Baseball League (FCBL) season, the Wachusett Dirt Dawgs beat Torrington’s Titans 6-2 at a point where every game finally matters in the race for a playoff spot.

“These are the type of games that get you there – or don’t get you there,” said Titans Coach Zack LaRosa. “You have to get our guys to just grind. You can’t tell them not to be banged up and not to be tired.”

With just 10 games left to play in the regular season, the Titans need to climb two places to qualify for the six-team playoffs in which the two division winners get a first round bye, then face the winner of elimination games between the next four highest-record teams regardless of division.

“We still have a chance,” said LaRosa. “Our goal is to make sure the last game of the season matters – win and you’re in.”

The Dirt Dawgs are in the same spot, starting the night a game behind the Titans in the West Division.

Titans General Manager Chris Myslow has done everything he can to arm his team literally for the stretch run.

Canton High School lefthanded pitching star Chris Enns, now a rising junior at Quinnipiac, won his first game last week and took the mound again Tuesday evening.

Wachusett made a last-minute switch to UMass Boston sophomore Cory Giguere.

Giguere won this time, as did

the Dirt Dawg bats.

“That’s a pretty good pitcher they threw at us,” said LaRosa, after Giguere no-hit the Titans for three innings, then gave up two runs on a walk and two hits by Mike Kochiss (2for-4, double) and Michael Purcell.

That’s all Giguere allowed in five innings, along with seven strikeouts.

Meanwhile, the Dirt Dawgs banged up Enns with a single and a triple by Grant Hoover and Ryan Solomon for a run in the second and two more in the fourth on triples by Sean Webster (2-for-4, 2 RBI, 2 runs) and Ryan Lever.

Giguere stayed through the fifth, striking out the side in his final inning. Two relievers held the Titans to just one more hit, by Kochiss in the final inning.

The Titans used four more pitchers. Wachusett’s Ryne Ogren hit a two-run homer off Keith Grant in the fifth; Webster was back for a solo shot off Nick Williams in the eighth.

“It’s down to the next guy up – just get three outs,” said LaRosa.

The Dirt Dawgs come back to Fuessenich Park Thursday to face Torrington’s own “pretty good picher” – Watertown lefty Nick Mondak, who leads the league in ERA.

With 10 games left, it’s down to just get a win.

PHOTO BY MARIANNE KILLACKEY Left-hander Chris Enns is one of several recent additions to the Titans pitching staff engineered by Ganeral Manager Chris Myslow for a shot at the playoffs in the final stretch.

PHOTO BY MARIANNE KILLACKEY Mike Kochiss went 2-for-4 with a double and a run on a night when Wachusett pitchers held the Titans to just three hits.