Danbury swept in state final

MIDDLETOWN — For the first time since 1973, the West Hartford Post 96 American Legion 19U team is the Connecticut state champion, defeating defending champion Danbury Post 68 with a two-game sweep.

West Hartford took the first game of the three game series on Friday night 6-1, and proceeded to seal the deal with a 10-1 win in Game 2 at Palmer Field on Saturday.

“It is tremendous, especially because I am a Post 96 alum,” West Hartford coach John Cotter said. “I played in 1988-91, and I have coached in this program for close to 15 years. I have seen where it has been, where it has come, and where it can go. We have a nice group of talent in West Hartford, and to see them work year round and come here today and get this done is a great feeling.”

Starting pitcher Brendan Grady silenced the Danbury bats, throwing a complete game while allowing just one earned run on six hits with no walks and five strikeouts.

Grady, a Conard graduate and Trinity College commit, only needed 87 pitches, throwing 67% for strikes. He was named the MVP of the championship.

“(Grady) had a great spring at Conard and he has kind of been our workhorse,” Cotter said. “He is a calm, effective pitcher who moves the ball around a ton. Trinity College is going to be fortunate to have a kid coming in, the way he is dealing, and hopefully he can continue to grow. He is smart, he is a bulldog competitor, and it was a no-brainer having him in this situation today.”

West Hartford first baseman Chase Hanawalt was named the best hitter of the tournament, going 3-for-7 with a double two RBIs, two runs scored and two stolen bases in the championship series. On Saturday, outfielder Tristan Baron led the offensive charge, going 1-for-1 with a triple, a sacrifice fly, three RBIs and two runs scored.

Danbury struck first in Game 2 as catcher Tom Pilla hit a twoout RBI single to score second baseman Anthony Hackert in the top of the second inning.

West Hartford responded in the bottom half of the second as Grady helped his own cause with a perfectly executed suicide squeeze, scoring Baron and resulting in a single.

Three of West Hartford’s 10 runs came on squeeze bunts.

“We have done a lot of the suicide bunts this year, and we have been successful,” Cotter said. “We have guys one through nine who have the ability to play small ball. Our goal coming in here was try to get the first run on the board, and the second

was put as much pressure on the defense as possible.”

The pressure worked, as Danbury committed six errors in the game.

West Hartford broke out for four runs in each of the following two frames

on six hits and two errors, with the biggest blow being a two-run fourth inning triple by Baron, ultimately extending the lead to 9-1. The final run came on a Jacob Morren RBI single in the sixth.

Danbury’s repeat hopes were denied, but the program can hang its head on back-to-back state championship appearances. Not

only that, but ace Tanner Wall, who earned the win for Brookfield in the Class L state championship game this spring, was named best pitcher of the tournament.

“Tanner (Wall) is a great pitcher,” Danbury coach Dave Simone said. “Unfortunately it did not work out with him pitching in the championship, I would

have loved to see that, but it just didn’t line up that way. He deserves it, he is as good as anybody.”

Danbury finished 5-2 in the tournament, having won its first five games before running into West Hartford, which went 7-1 in the tournament.

“It was a great season, I love these guys and we had a lot of fun this summer,”

Simone said. “I think we played close to 40 games, but we just ran out of gas a little bit at the end. West Hartford is a great team, I think they are going to make a run in regionals, but I couldn’t be more proud of my guys for buying in.”

Eight teams will begin play at Holy Cross in Massachusetts on Wednesday

for the Regional Tournament, and West Hartford will be the only team there that did not play in the tournament last year.