MacDonald tosses 1-hitter
NORWALK — It may be the only time a second baseman was lobbying for an infield hit to be ruled an error.
In the third inning, Jay Thronley of Norwalk scorched a groundball to the right of Stamford second baseman TJ Wainwright.
Wainwright dove and snagged the ball but his throw to first bounced and Thornley was safe.
It was ruled a hit but when that turned out to be the only hit Stamford pitcher John MacDonald allowed, Wainwright tried making the case his play was an error as he sat in the dugout after the game.
In the end, it remained a hit. One hit or none, MacDonald was dominant Saturday morning as Stamford Senior Legion defeated Norwalk 8-0 at Nathan Hale Middle School.
MacDonald said he was a little tired taking the hill at 10 the morning after he graduated from Westhill High School, but once he got on the hill, he locked in.
“Early morning, not too much sleep. Graduated last night and stayed up a little late but got here, stretched out, and the ball was zipping out of my hand. From the first inning, I was not missing my spots,” MacDonald said. “With wood bats, if you hit a corner and they swing, it’s a broken bat like 20 percent of the time where with metal bats a lot of those are dink hits. In high school, I would try and elevate my fastball and get pop-ups, but low fastballs with the wood bats work better. I am trying to work at the knees and in and out.”
Stamford scratched out two runs in the first on two infield hits, two walks a wild pitch.
Stamford added another in the sixth on a RBI single by Conor Nicholson.
In the seventh, Stamford batted around, scoring five more times.
Adam Stone drove in two runs in the on a double; Wainwright
doubled and drove in a run; Hunter Semmel tripled in a run and Nicholson drove in another with a single. Michael Grafstein was 2-for-2 in the inning with a run scored.
“As a coach, you want to score every inning but that’s most likely not going to happen,” Stamford coach Kevin Murray said. “You need to find a way to add-on runs during games and we have been doing that. We have been able to put a bunch up in the later innings recently and then we have held them down.”
Norwalk pitcher Isaac Keehn was sharp in six innings, allowing three hits before being lifted ahead of the seventh.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
John MacDonald, Stamford. The big righty struck out 10, pitching a complete game.
EJECTED
Norwalk coach Matt Harbilas went to the mound for a visit with his pitcher in the seventh and his team trailing 7-0. The field umpire instructed Harbilas that he must have a hat on during mound visits (Harbilas was holding the batting helmet he wears when coaching third). Harbilas asked the umpire why he was bothering him about the hat and the umpire immediately ejected him from the game. Harbilas got his two cents in before leaving the field. He was not able to coach the team in the second game of the Saturday doubleheader and will also miss Norwalk’s next game next week.
QUOTABLE
“Isaac always keeps us in it. He’s our ace and we always look to him to do what he did today,” Norwalk assistant coach Mike Parlanti said. “(MacDonald) had everything working. He is such a great pitcher. Sometimes you just have to tip your cap and that’s what happened today.”
GAME TWO
Norwalk defeated Stamford 3-1 in game two of the doubleheader.