Pomperaug senior pitcher Grant Wallace serves up a pitch in Monday’s 8-2 win over Weston. Wallace threw four shutout innings as the Panthers improved to 7-2 on the season. (Ken Morse photo)
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By KEN MORSE Special to the Middlebury Bee-Intelligencer
The Pomperaug High School boys’ baseball team is closing in on a successful first half of the season as they improved to a 7-2 record by earning an 8-2 win over Weston Monday.
The Panthers’ Grant Wallace held down Weston through four shutout innings on the hill, scattering four hits. Ryan Dunfee pitched two innings in relief, surrendering two hits and two runs but keeping the damage to a minimum by striking out three. Nick Albano slammed the door in the seventh to put the win in the books.
“We know we have some potential here,” said Pomperaug head coach Mike Eisenbach. “But there is still a lot of room for growth. We won the game today but we really need to cut down on mistakes.
“We made a lot of mental mistakes, and we really need to clarify that if we expect to get better as a team. We are finding ways to win but we need to continue to work hard and get better.”
Pomperaug shook off its first loss of the season, a 4-2 setback to Newtown last Monday, when they came back to beat Brookfield last Wednesday in a 9-4 win. Dunfee allowed just one hit in four and a third innings, with Joe LaCava going two-thirds of an inning and Jacob Coviello striking out six in the final two innings on the mound.
Wallace led the way at the plate, banging out three hits, driving in three runs and scoring twice. Chris McFarland added a hit, a run and two RBIs, with Josh McGettigan contributing a hit and an RBI.
The Panthers showed the kind of offense they have, battling back from a 6-3 deficit by plating six runs in their final at-bat to take a victory from Bunnell last Thursday.
It marked the third time this season the Panthers’ bats erupted to hang six runs on the board in an inning. Albano went four innings, striking out three, with Connor Sullivan picking up the win with two innings of relief.
Matt Brophy led the attack with three hits, a run and an RBI. Nick Hebert had a big two-run hit in the comeback with Ryan Loiselle, Sullivan and Andrew Minchella adding key RBIs.
Wallace came through with two doubles and scored two runs. With the game on the line, the senior pitcher shut the door, striking out two batters in the seventh inning for the save.
“There have been times when errors in the field have given teams five outs an inning,” said coach Eisenbach. “You can’t do that and expect to win games.”
Pomperaug found that out the hard way last Saturday in a tough 6-2 loss to Ridgefield. The Panthers were held to just three hits, and the defense committed two errors in the field, allowing the Tigers to put up three runs in the third and two more in the fifth to put the game away.
Coviello had three strikeouts on the mound, Jake Veillette had two strikeouts, and Sullivan had one strikeout to try and hold back the Tigers. Brian Dagostino belted a solo home run, and Minchella doubled and scored the second Pomperaug run.
“We have a couple of juniors and a sophomore who are making progress on the mound for us,” added coach Eisenbach. “Grant started for us today and didn’t have his best stuff, but he had enough to win.”
“The key is we have to keep building off the games to get better. You can’t build off mental mistakes in the field, giving teams extra outs, and we did that today in a couple of innings.”
Weston had something going in the first and third innings, aided by a few balls that didn’t produce outs. And just as fast as the defense allowed the door to open, the defense quickly closed it, coming up with inning-ending double plays.
Pomperaug needed a big hit to take control of the game and got just that in the bottom of the second inning. Dagostino, Minchella and Brophy were on board, loading the bases, when McFarland cleared them with a three-run double.
Wallace helped himself out on the hill, leading off the third with a double to the gap and came around to score when Hebert slammed a single into left field past the diving third baseman to open a 4-0 lead.
Dunfee came on, throwing two innings in relief of Wallace but deserved a better fate when three infield errors allowed the Trojans to plate single runs in the fifth and sixth innings.
The Panthers bats came to the rescue in the fifth when Minchella sent a bases-loaded blast down into the right-field corner to clear the bases with a three-run double. Pomperaug hung four on the board to take a commanding 8-2 lead.
The Panthers were to be back at it Wednesday in Bridgeport to take on Kolbe Cathedral and then will host Bethel today, Thursday.
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