The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Torrington strikes down East Lyme
Torrington comes back for third time this tournament, forces winner-take-all game tonight
For the third time in the tournament the cardiac kids from Torrington struck, coming back to win, 8-6, to force a winner-take-all game against East Lyme today.
“Never quit,” said Torrington head coach Chris Root. “That’s our team’s motto.”
That is exactly what Torrington did, with two-outs facing elimination, in the top of the sixth down 6-5.
Casey Navin took second base on a passed ball and then took third when the catchers throw back to the pitcher went into cen- terfield.
CJ Root, Torrington’s number three hitter, then lined an RBI base hit scoring Narvin to tie the game and that’s when the game started to go Torrington’s way.
With Root on first, Mike Paniati stepped to the plate and on the second pitch of the at-bat he sent a screamer, which left the field in a hurry, over the left field wall to cap off Torrington’s comeback, giving them the 8-6 lead.
“It’s crazy, I was trying to get a hit,” said Paniati. “I was hoping that he wouldn’t catch it.”
Coach Root was hoping that his cleanup hitter would get a pitch to hit in the big spot.
“I am glad he got a pitch to
hit,” said Root. “They were throwing around him.”
He also never thought the game was over, even with two-outs.
“I was fully confident,” he said. “It’s the third time we’ve come back in this tournament.”
Torrington wasn’t down the whole game, they jumped ahead to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning when both Jake Nilsson, on a CJ Root sacrifice fly, and Navin, on an Adam Vanotti base hit, came around to score.
The led until the third in- ning when East Lyme scored five runs, on Torrington’s starter Vanotti, on a combination of hits and costly errors by Torrington’s infield, taking a 5-2 lead.
Vanotti, who went all six innings and struck out two batters, wasn’t fazed.
“I just let them hit the ball and let my defense make plays,” Vanotti said. “I kept pitching like I was pitching before.”
The Torrington bats again awoke in the top of the fourth inning scoring three runs to tie the game, with some timely hitting and getting some help from the East Lyme defense, which made three errors in the inning.
“We kept fighting,” Root said. “No matter if we are up 10 or down 10.”
East Lyme though came right back scoring in the bottom of the fourth, taking the lead back, 6-5.
Even though East Lyme had just tacked on six runs against Vanotti in two innings, Root was confident in his pitchers ability to keep the team in the game.
“He pitched a fantastic game,” he said.
“We were going to keep running him out until he was out of pitches.”
Torrington will play East Lyme again today at 6 p.m. at Pesci Field in Windsor Locks. Winner will go to the State playoffs, loser will go home.
“We are going to try and win,” said Paniati.