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NEWSFLASH - SportingNewsCT.com launches REPLAY STORE subscription service!!!
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Curren's American Legion Report Week 4 |
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Ray Curren - Elm City Newspapers
July 8, 2008 - Sometimes in this business, we tend to make things much more complicated than they are. But it seemed like a pretty cut and dry case when trying to project the Hamden American Legion baseball team this summer.
Post 88 hasn’t finished with a winning record since 2002, and most of its roster was coming from the Hamden High team, which floundered its way to a 5-15 record this spring. On Opening Night, Hamden was beaten 7-2 by Milford, but through six games was a respectable 3-3. Most, including me, thought their time at .500 might be temporary with a little tougher schedule ahead.
I was right - their time at .500 was short-lived. In fact, Hamden hasn’t lost since, picking up their 11th straight victory last Sunday with a 4-1 win over East Haven. Their remarkable run has seen them already qualify for their first state tournament in six years and has them only one game behind zone leader She
lton with only two weeks to play in the season. Only one question: how did they do it? Magic acts, importing minor league players, voodoo? It turns out, it is that simple, yet underrated confidence thing that has apparently done the trick. “We’re playing as a team, and the kids really believe in themselves,” Hamden manager Frank DeLucia said. “It’s taken a while, but once they started finally believe in themselves they’ve shown everyone what they
could do.” As, with most good baseball teams, this is a story about pitching and defense. Ace Dan Rhone, who graduated from Hamden High last spring, has kept hitters at bay, and has gotten stronger as the summer has progressed. Ian Bezahler has six wins already, many of them in relief. The defense part has been equally impressive.
Take last Sunday’s game: Billy Garcia struck out the first hitter of the game, and did not record another strikeout the rest of the morning. But his also didn’t walk anyone, and although Garcia allowed six hits, he got plenty of defensive help behind him, and high-powered East Haven could manage only a single run. “We’ve been doing the little things very well,” DeLucia said. “That’s really been the difference. We make the plays and it gives our pitchers confidence.”
Hamden has gotten help all over its lineup, but if you had to give out a Zone II MVP award so far, it might go to Hamden shortstop Kyle Cummings. Cummings, who homered in last Sunday’s win, has been nearly flawless at shortstop, even on the sometimes unforgiving terrain of Hamden High’s field.
There are other reasons why Hamden, under DeLucia and his staff, are the feel good story of 2008 in Zone II. Even when they were struggling - and let’s face it, for the last few years Hamden has had their struggles - Hamden has always maintained a top-notch discipline record and have had very few internal problems with their players. While many other teams near the bottom of the standings have problems fielding full teams at the end of the season, Hamden has always had a nearly full bench and been competitive.
Last season, Hamden - despite being well out of contention - gave Shelton all it could handle in the season’s final week before Shelton finally prevailed and won its second straight Zone II title. Next week, Hamden again closes the campaign with three games against Shelton, and this time it should have a lot more meaning. But the key to Hamden’ success may be very simple. While other teams look tired and sometimes disinterested, Hamden keeps on plugging along, and here’s a novel concept : they seem to just love playing baseball.
“These kids just want to play,” DeLucia said. “It’s not something the coaches do, it’s something the players do. They show up early for batting practice, and they want the extra swings and reps.” While the opponents obviously want their team to be on top of the standings, no one has anything negative to say about DeLucia and the Hamden program. DeLucia’s father, Frank Sr., was the long-time manager of Post 88 before he died of a heart attack during the 2001 season. And although everything was in order off the field, it’s been a while since Hamden has been able to look down on so many teams in Zone II.
“Even though the high school (Hamden) had the record it had, they weren’t playing that badly, especially at the end of the season,” DeLucia said. “Sometimes it’s tough, we had eight or nine games last season that we lost by one run. I’m just thrilled that this group is finally getting what they deserve.” And through persistence and some tough times, most would agree that DeLucia is getting what he deserves as well.
EXTRA INNINGS: There was not much settled this week as the July 4th holiday kept the schedule to a minimum. The schedule, even without too many doubleheaders, has gone rather smoothly so far in 2008, but we’ll see if it continues. Next week marks the end of the regular season …
One team that must pick up the pace is West Haven, who fell to 6-10 with a couple of losses in mid-week. Post 71 has not been able to find a way to get timely hitting or score runs like they hoped they would. Hamden was the beneficiary last week …
Might Shelton and Hamden (whoever does not win the zone) be cheering against teams like Orange and East Haven at the end of the campaign? If five teams finish the season with a winning record, there won’t be any benefit to being second, the four teams will all have to win two games to make the state tournament.
However, if only four qualify, the second place team would get a bye into the finals on Sunday. Of course, playing two games in one day didn’t exactly hurt Branford last season, and they not only went through the Zone II tournament, but went on to win the state title as well …
Last Sunday, there were two games that ended in an 11-10 final: East Haven beating North Haven and Shelton beating Milford. Just to complete the theory that things happen in threes, North Haven turned around and beat East Haven, 11-10, two nights later.
GAME OF THE WEEK Hamden vs. Branford, Saturday-Monday - This is the time of the summer that Branford usually starts to pick things up, but this time it looks like they will be head to head with the hottest team in Zone II. At the end of last week, Branford was in third place, right behind Hamden in the standings, although there was a four-game gap. This series is more about setting up position for the Zone II tournament in a couple of weeks.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK Jason Foster, Shelton - Foster was not exactly overpowering, but he still posted a shutout of Milford last Monday. The final score ended up 5-0, but it was 1-0 for most of the contest, with Foster maneuvering his way out of a couple of jams, as he seems to always do.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS 11
Number of consecutive wins Hamden had at the end of last week. It goes without saying that it is the longest streak in Zone II this season, and it is also more wins than Hamden had in any of the last five seasons.
WHO’S HOT Orange - Yeah, yeah, we know Hamden is pretty hot, but Orange deserves a little bit of credit, too. They’ve gotten near the .500 mark, and if they can climb into the Zone II Tournament, they should be a tough squad to eliminate.
WHO’S NOT Stratford - They‘ve been competitive, but they just can‘t seem to scratch out the wins the way they would have hoped. They are very close to being eliminated from postseason play.
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