The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Semonich, THS bounce back with win
TORRINGTON — Torrington’s baseball team turned Monday’s lump of coal into a gem Wednesday afternoon with a 4-1 win over Watertown.
Following Monday’s loss to Naugatuck with a combined 15 errors (9 by Torrington) on a wretched day for baseball, “It was nice to redeem ourselves,” said Tyler Semonich, Wednesday’s winning pitcher.
Semonich struggled along with most of the other players on the field in a brief relief appearance Monday, but came back for a masterful seven-inning performance Wednesday, complete with a double, walk and two runs scored at bat.
“I couldn’t ask for anything better. He was hitting his spots with all his pitches,” Torrington’s Cooper Suminski said.
Suminski moved from shortstop to second base as a big part of Torrington’s sure-handed defense in the Watertown win, then laid his claim at bat with a solo home run in the second inning.
“Even more than the home run, we needed to play that kind of defense,” said coach Pat Richardson, whose Raiders are 5-3 overall, 4-3 in the NVL. “It was the best we’ve looked so far.”
Both teams succumbed to Monday’s numbing cold defensively, despite Naugatuck’s win. Watertown’s good pitching and defense along with Torrington’ added to Wednesday’s luster. Each team had just five hits and one error apiece.
“Their kid pitched great and they had timely hitting,” said Watertown coach Jerry Valentino, now 3-3.
The Raiders hopped on Watertown starter Henry Marino with three of their hits in the first two innings when, like Monday, the pitchers still needed warming up in spite of Wednesday’s sunshine.
In the top of the first,
Watertown leadoff hitter Sam Weidermier laced a single up the middle. Semonich and Suminski took care of the next three batters with two popups and a line drive, all to second base.
In the bottom half, Semonich started Torrington’s timeliness with a one-out double to the right centerfield gap. Joe DiPippo and Ray Cambell (RBI) followed with singles and Tom Rooney hit the first of his two RBI for the day with a sacrifice fly.
Next inning, Semonich threw the first of his five strikeouts (no walks) for the first out.
Suminski finished it with two more plays at second, then led off the bottom of the inning with a home run over the left field fence.
Timely hitting? Warmed-up Watertown starter Marino, a lefty, struck out five Raiders from there. Reliever Cam Geurrera came on in the fifth for four more.
Nevertheless, Semonich, leading 3-0, claimed the most timely strikeout of all.
Watertown’s Peyton Defeo and Marino led off with singles. Torrington got two outs on a fly to left and fielder’s choice, but Semonich loaded the bases on a hit batter.
He racked up the final out on three straight strikes.
Semonich scored again in the sixth when his hot grounder to short went for Watertown’s only error, then raced home when Rooney’s fly to short left field was lost in the sun.
Watertown’s Nick Bristol scored in the seventh on a similar fluke. He smashed a one-out double, reached third on third-baseman Ryan Green’s nice play for the second out, then came home when a pop-up dropped in the infield for Torrington’s only error.
All in all, a total of two combined errors, two walks and one hit batter is apt to bring Wednesday’s group of fun-loving Torrington High School fans back another day.
Just don’t talk about Monday.
TORRINGTON 4, WATERTOWN 1
WATERTOWN 000 000 1 — 1 5 1 TORRINGTON 210 001 X — 4 5 1
WP: Tyler Semonich. LP: Henry Marino. HR: T — Cooper Suminski. 2B: W — Nick Bristol. T — Semonich. Records: Watertown 3-3. Torrington 5-3 (4-3 NVL)