Post 75, RCP set for battle between unbeatens

The healthy rivalry between neighboring American Legion baseball teams Rocky Hill/Cromwell/Portland and Middletown will be front and center next week when Zone 3’s two winningest clubs play a home-andhome series: Monday at Palmer Field and Thursday at Cromwell’s Fran Monnes Field.

The fact that one or both could carry an undefeated record into their head-to-head makes the matchups all the more scintillating, with added juice that, top to bottom, each has a roster fully capable of winning the state championship.

“I like playing the best competition and I know our guys do, too,” RCP’s first-year coach Pat Sirois said. “Coach (Dan) Botti and Middletown, we like to see them do well, and obviously we’ve had a rivalry in the zone year to year. I like when the games mean something.”

“We’ll battle it out under the lights (at Palmer Field),” Sirois added. “We know who we’ll face Monday and we’ll have to line up a guy who wants to compete with him. It’s not going to be easy.”

The “who” is Alex Mach, the 75ers’ top arm for the second straight summer. The right-hander is coming off an impressive first season at UConn Avery Point (five wins, 59 strikeouts in 50 innings, 3.87 ERA). He beat Tri-County on Monday in his first appearance of the summer and indeed will have the ball against RCP, Botti said.

Mach will face a Post 105 offense that is swinging it well: 75 runs in its first 10 games (all wins), a team batting average of .326 and just 36 strikeouts in 332 plate appearances.

“That kind of goes directly with what we preach,” Sirois said. “At this level of baseball, if you throw strikes and don’t make

Paul Augeri / For Hearst Connecticut Media Tino Gagliardi (23) is one of RCP’s top returning players and run producers during Post 105’s 10-0 start to the season.