Manchester to face Fairfield
EAST LYME — On Saturday, Wallingford was confident and felt it was prepared enough to have a positive outcome against Manchester National in an elimination game at the Connecticut Little League state championship tournament.
But Wallingford didn’t count on Manchester National’s starting pitcher Alex Pelletier having one of his best days on the mound. It also didn’t count on Pelletier helping his cause with one of his best days at the plate.
Pelletier set the tone on offense for Manchester National with a two- run homer in the first inning and ended up with two hits, three RBIs and three runs scored in a 12- 1 win over Wallingford at East Lyme Field.
On the mound, Pelletier went 52⁄ in
3 nings, allowed four hits and struck out seven. Wallingford only managed to hit three balls to the outfield, with Pelletier inducing mostly groundouts when he wasn’t striking out batters.
“Before the game our coach told me to keep it simple on the mound,” Pelletier said. “I threw mostly fastballs down and that helped us get a lot of groundouts. It felt great to get us going with the two- run homer today. But to be honest, it was really a team effort the whole game, not just me.
“Everybody contributed today. We’re all excited to get to the next round.”
Manchester National advanced to the championship round and will face Fairfield American Sunday at East Lyme Field at 4 p. m.
“Alex’s bat has been a little quiet lately, but he does hit a lot of home runs for us,” Manchester manager Don Diehl said. “On the mound he came out and kept throwing strikes and did a great job keeping them off balance. He kept the ball down so that when they did hit the ball there were a lot of ground balls.”
Manchester National set the tone early when Pelletier belted his two- run home run over center field fence for a 2- 0 lead in the top of the first inning.
After a scoreless second inning, Manchester National added two more runs in the third inning. Jack Stokes drove in Easton Masse off an infield hit. With one out, Stew Harrison hit into a fielder’s choice to shortstop allowing Pelletier to score from third base to make it made it 4- 0.
Mason Breton padded the Manchester National lead in the fourth inning with a two- run homer in left field for a 6- 0 lead. Manchester made it 8- 0 in the top of the fifth inning on an RBI single by Caleb Camp and RBI sacrifice fly to right field by Cedric Hakian.
Wallingford got one back in the bottom of the fifth inning on an RBI double by Tyler Casey to make it 8- 1.
But Manchester National responded with four runs in the sixth inning for the 12- 1 final.
“Alex Pelletier pitched a heck of a game,” Wallingford manager Brian Mitchell said. “I thought we were ready to start hitting the ball today but he kept us off balance. They took the 2- 0 lead and then a 4- 0 lead and we couldn’t reel in any of those runs. Some days, the other guys are just a little better than you.
“It’s been an amazing run with our kids since they were 10. They’ve won a lot of championships. To lose this game stings a bit and I’m hurting for them. I can’t say enough how proud I am of all our guys, their consistency over the years and how hard they worked to get here.”