The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Winsted Post 43 upsets Bristol
WINSTED » Winsted Post 43’s American Legion baseball team stunned perennial Zone I power Bristol with a 5-4 come-from-behind win at Walker Field Tuesday evening in a game with lots of lessons for everyone.
“We’ve been in a lot of close games and I think they’ve learned that if you pitch and play defense, you’ve got a good chance,” said Winsted Coach D.J. Reese. “They gave themselves the chance today.”
Down 3-1 after three innings, winning pitcher Ryan Sholtis and his defense hung in for just one error despite 10 Bristol hits, got a major break with an uncharacteristic three Bristol errors in the fourth, then pounced for two more runs in the bottom of the seventh on a double by Vin Tranceti and a game winning walk to Tony Pacino.
“We took advantage of some
mistakes, but we know we’re capable of going a long ways this summer and we proved it today,” said Tranceti.
Winsted, 6-3, a solid third in the nine-team zone, just behind Bristol (5-2-1) and Avon (7-1), gets much of its confidence from a great Berkshire League showing in this year’s state tournaments. Coach Reese is an Assistant Coach at league champion Lewis Mills, a finalist in Class M.
Post 43 draws from Northwestern, Housatonic and Gilbert. Northwestern knocked off the No. 1 seed in Class M. Housatonic made it to the Class S semifinals. Sholtis was Gilbert’s ace, with 88 strikeouts in 54.2 innings.
Not much of that showed in Bristol’s first three atbats. Two hits and a walk by Cory Fredette (2-for-4, run); Jake Violette and Anthony Lozier (RBI) spotted Bristol two runs in the first inning. Two more hits and a sacrifice fly in the third, by Ben Mazzone (2-for-4, Run); Fredette and Chadd Richardson (RBI) added another.
“Today, I couldn’t find my secondary pitch, so I had to go with just fastballs,” said Sholtis. “When I made a mistake, they hit it hard.”
That worked both ways Tuesday.
Cam Wilhelm, ninth in Winsted’s batting order, led off with a double in the bottom of the third, reached third base on a fly to right field and scored on Mike Oley’s sacrifice fly to deep center field.
Bristol made it 4-1 in the top of the fourth on leadoff hits by Jalen Benoit (2-for3, run), Jaeden Rasmus and a sacrifice bunt by Mike Lemke (RBI), but Bristol mistakes tightened it up in the bottom of the inning.
Lucas Gryniuk (run) and Chad Closson opened with a double and a single. Two successive errors and a wild pitch brought them home to make it 4-3.
Then it was a waiting game. Winsted’s defense continued to shine with great plays (leftfielder Jayson Reola in the second inning; shortstop Tony Pacino in the second and fourth; center fielder Cam Goulet in the fifth). Sholtis kept trucking with his fastball.
The bottom of the seventh was the chance. Goulet opened with a bloop single into no-man’s land behind third base; Bristol accommodated Wilhelm with another error. Tranceti blasted his double into deep right center field for the tie.
With no outs and Winsted runners on second and third, Bristol Coach Jerry LaPenta called in Mazzone, his second relief pitcher of the inning, ordering an intentional walk to Oley to load the bases.
Tony Pacino waited out four straight balls for the winning run.
Winsted made its own chance, then grabbed it.