The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
P38 coach optimistic following first year
TORRINGTON — Winsted, Torrington and Washington, the Northwest Corner’s three American Legion baseball teams, finished their regular seasons Wednesday night.
Winsted’s Post 43 moves on to a first-round state tournament game Saturday. Torrington plays an exhibition game against Windsor Locks. Washington, fifth in Zone 5, is done for the summer.
The top four finishers in each of eight zones qualify for the opening round of the Legion tournament.
Winsted, tied with Simsbury at 11-7 in Zone 1, slipped to fourth place on a tie-breaker. A core of Northwestern, Gilbert and Housatonic kids play Zone 6 champion Niantic (20-7) Saturday, 1 p.m., at East Lyme High School.
Torrington’s P38s finished last in Zone 1, but still get the thrill of playing at Hartford’s Dunkin’ Donuts Stadium against Zone 8’s last-place team Saturday at 2 p.m., thanks to Torrington donors.
There may not be a harder job than coaching an American Legion baseball team.
Competition is intense on the field, as well as off the field, struggling with AAU and other organizations for the best high school-age players.
It’s a volunteer position with similar hours and, sometimes, similar outside expectations as those for a high school coach while summer jobs, vacations and summer attitudes add unique complications.
For all of that, Torrington’s Doug Pergola came through his first season as head coach still smiling.
“I liked it,” Pergola said at Fuessenich Park Thursday after-
noon. The team won just three games, but there were bright spots.
“These kids are young, mostly sophomores and juniors,” said Pergola, optimistic about improvement with all 18 of this year’s players eligible to return next summer.
“The biggest thing is commitment,” he said. “With 18 kids, we had just one game where everyone was there. That was the only time we could play our best nine. If the commitment was there, we could have been .500 or better
this year.”
At 3-15, the focus is on the bright spots. Despite the record, the P38s played close against all six Zone I competitors.
Casey Weingart, a rising senior at Northwestern, was the pitching workhorse, with 30 innings in five starts, including a onerun loss to zone champion Avon.
‘We were in every game Casey pitched,” Pergola said.
For more pitching hope, look no further than lefty Adam Vanotti’s no-hitter against sixth-place Plainville last week. Vanotti needed just 65 pitches to complete the 1-0 win, including
6 strikeouts and just one walk.
Vanotti threw 16 innings this summer; Kyle Banche contributed 21 more.
Much of Torrington’s offense came from Mike Paniati and Brad Ellis, both rising seniors. Ellis, a Warren native at Avon Old Farms, hit .439 with 18 hits. Torrington High School’s Paniati was .436 with 24 hits.
Both were invited to the Rawlings Futures Showcase All-Star Game July 5.
“We lost a lot of close games,” summarizes Pergola. “We need motivation and leadership to get us over the hump next summer.”