The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Winsted takes down Torrington
TORRINGTON » Winsted’s American Legion Post 43 baseball team beat Torrington’s P38s 11-4 Thursday evening, foreshadowing a long Legion season for Torrington and hopefulness for Winsted in a league that collects all-stars from schools in each team’s designated territory.
Despite Zone I’s annual weight at the top from teams like Avon, Bristol, Simsbury and Southington, with more and/or bigger high schools to draw from, Northwest corner teams Torrington, Winsted and Terryville generally get a summer preview in their scholastic seasons.
In the P38 territory, Torrington High School went 6-14 in the NVL; Litchfield High School;was 4-16; Wamogo, 2-18. The P38s are 1-7 so far against Zone I’s much stiffer competition.
“We’re very young,” said P38 Coach R.J. Poniatoski, after his team gave up three runs in the first inning and six in the fourth to put the game away Thursday. “We have no pitching and we tend to space out. We have to learn to focus for seven innings.”
Winsted (3-3) benefits from the Berkshire League’s competitiveness at the top this year, drawing from Housatonic, Northwestern and Gilbert.
The Mountaineers, who went 15-5 in the regular season, made it to the Class S semifinals before losing a no-hitter to state champion Holy Cross.
Northwestern, 9-11 in the regular season, won a Class M play-in game 13-0, then beat No. 1 Ellington 7-3 in the first round as the 32nd seed while BL Champion Lewis Mills went to the state finals.
Gilbert, 6-13, missed the state tournament, but contributes 6-8 pitcher Ryan Sholtis, with 88 strikeouts in 54.2 innings this spring for a 2.18 ERA.
“We’re rich in pitching and we’re finally older,” said Post 43 Assistant Coach Rob Jasmin. “Our defense is solid.”
Even so, American Legion baseball is an uphill climb. Winsted (33) is tied with Southington for fifth
place in the nine-team zone. Their hope is to reenact a Northwestern or a Housatonic this summer. Signs so far are decent. Behind Sholtis, Winsted beat third-place Simsbury (3-2-1) a week ago, 8-1, and held first-place Avon (60) to a 2-0 win Wednesday. Sholtis takes on second-place Bristol (5-1) next Tuesday in a 5:45 p.m. start at Walker Field.
Meanwhile, American Legion baseball continues to be a teaching experience for serious ballplayers. At least part of the Berkshire League’s competitiveness comes from its players’ willingness to take their lumps against bigger-school opponents.
Torrington, too, has some stellar returners. John Swanson, headed for West Point in the fall after a season at prep school, was a force in the P38 lineup Thursday. Garrett Coe, a rising junior at The Gunnery School, pitched the P38s’ only win so far, against Unionville. Jake Reynolds, pitching veteran of a no-hitter two years ago, was a rock at third base in Thursday’s loss.
In this league, the younger guys will learn to focus.