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Ray Curren - Elm City Newspapers
July 21, 2008 - Unfortunately for us neutral observers, there was no late drama in the Zone II race this season, as Shelton took care of business and basically ran away with its third straight zone title, something that - honestly - was somewhat expected this season, but it made the last week of the season anticlimactic.
But it was a little more exciting for teams like Orange and Milford, who needed to win games in the last week of the season to qualify for this weekend’s postseason.
With the regular season finished, let’s go through a quick State of the Zone review of where the 10 teams came from and where they ended up in the brief season that is American Legion baseball.
1) Shelton (23-4)
As two-time defending champions, they were the favorites from Opening Day, and after a couple of losses in their first four games, Shelton dominated. Most of the credit goes to their pitching staff. As an ace, Jason Foster was dominating for most of the season (until a late-season loss to West Haven), but it was the depth of the staff - as it is many times in Legion ball - that propelled Post 16 to their third straight title.
Even with the zone decided last Thursday, Kyle Lavin, who would be a No. 1 on many staffs, threw a nine-inning complete game as Shelton came back from a rare lopsided loss to beat Hamden, 2-1. Two days later in the season fine, Ryan Headley tossed a two-hit shutout.
“Two years ago, we came out of nowhere, and I=2 0don’t think people knew how good we were until it was over,” Shelton coach Sean Kiernan said. “Last year’s team was special, probably the best I had here, our lineup was just tough to deal with, everyone hit up and down the lineup. This team has done it a little differently, but I’m hoping they can make it one more game and win the state title. We have the potential with our pitching to do it.”
Shelton will have to field a different lineup next season with many of its pitchers moving on, so this may be the shot for Kiernan and crew to win the state title that got away last season. There aren’t many people that saw them play in Zone II this season betting against them.
2) Hamden (18-9)
Even though Hamden went on a pretty major slide at the end of the season (only 4-6 in their last 10 games), they were still the best story of the year in Zone II, and it was fitting that they held on for second place.
Hamden had its stars - most notably shortstop Kyle Cummings, who would have taken home Zone II’s Gold Glove if there were such an award - but it was a true team effort for Post 88, who will play the biggest game for the squad since they were denied a chance to go to the Final 16 of the state tournament by East Hartford in 2002.
With the exception of Saturday’s blowout loss to Shelton, Hamden was in virtually every game and did it in many different ways. Dan Rhone’s final record didn8 0t show it, but he was one of the more dominant pitchers in Zone II, and they got contributions almost everywhere in the lineup on their way to an 11-game winning streak and a 14-3 mark before slipping at the end.
Hamden’s critics would point out that they started slipping when their schedule got tough, but everyone played the same teams this year, and Post 88 finished second, which can’t be taken away from them. Hopefully, they’ll win one more on Sunday and represent the zone in the big tournament.
3) Branford (17-10)
Here’s all you need to know about Branford - other than the fact that they’ve won two state titles in the last three years. I got a phone call saying they were down 6-0 to Milford in the second inning on a Saturday morning. The report was they looked terrible, lethargic, and still half asleep.
Final score: Branford 17, Milford 8. Two weeks later, armed with the same information, they made me look good. Hamden scored five times in the first inning, and with the score 5-0 after three innings, I boldly predicted a Branford victory. Final score: Branford 10, Hamden 9.
The prediction wasn’t so bold, really. Branford has been playing an unorthodox, seemingly haphazard style of baseball for the last few years, but to say it’s been effective would be an insult to them. It’s been a smashing success. The state titles sound impressive - and they are. But these aren’t high school state titles where the games are single elimination and there might be 30 teams involved. These are double-elimination tournaments with more than 70 teams playing.
Many people thought this would be the year Branford came back to the pack, they were missing a few key high schoolers and lost a few more to age. And they were only third in the zone. But, at the end of the season, no one was hotter than Branford, and no one wants to see them this weekend. So when you hear Sunday that Branford is down 6-1 or 7-1 in the fourth inning, you need not worry.
4) Milford (16-11)
Despite the fact that they run consecutively, high school baseball and Legion ball are two different animals. Therefore, there was some unfair hype surrounding the Milford squad after Jonathan Law’s amazing run to the state title and Foran reaching the semifinals.
However, unfortunately, a few key cogs from those squads (especially a couple from Law) didn’t play Legion and Milford couldn’t quite put it together to make a run at the top of the Zone II standings this summer.
Foran pitcher Bryan Ward had a great summer on the mound, and they had some very good wins, but also had some puzzling losses - most notably to Stratford in back-to-back games.
Still, Milford finished well at the end of the campaign, and will only have to win twice this weekend to go to the Final 16, certainly not of their reach.
5) Orange (14-13)
It was an un-Orange like season in Orange, where young doesn’t even begin to describe how inexperience d they were this season, and it showed early in the season, as they were 1-7.
Of course, no one is going to feel sorry for the most brash group in Zone II, and they didn’t feel sorry for themselves, either. Orange went on a giant run (winning 12 of 15) to put themselves at least into the state tournament, although they’ll probably have to win three games this weekend to qualify.
The second half of the season showed just how much depth there is in the Orange system. Although they did have SCC Tournament MVP Conor Keniry and pitcher Kyle Birsdall, they were forced to go with a lot of players with limited experience, and they came into their own in Orange’s run toward the tournament. It will be very hard to make it through the gauntlet of 27 innings this weekend, but the future looks bright at Brinley Field.
6) East Haven (12-15) More was expected out of East Haven after they were only two games from the Final 16 last season (and also made its first appearance of any kind in the state tournament). But they found out what we already knew: that pitching depth is the key with the volume of games in Legion baseball.
East Haven had one of the most feared lineups - if not the most - in the zone, but just couldn’t consistently get people out. In back-to-back games against North Haven, they played 11-10 games, winning one and losing the other. And at times, they showed they could play with the top teams in the zone. But inconsistency on the=2 0mound left them on the outside looking in at the end of the season.
7) West Haven (11-16) The beginning was great, an easy 6-2 win over East Haven, and the end was as well, a 4-0 blanking of North Haven, but the middle was a season of trials and tribulations for Post 7, who had just about everything that could go wrong go wrong for them. A few defections from the Opening Day roster hurt them, and they just couldn’t get any consistency up and down the lineup.
They also lost a plethora of close games, none of which hurt more than an 12-9 nine-inning loss to Shelton in which the Westies held a 9-2 lead, and led 9-8 with two outs and no one on base in the seventh. The next night they had to face Jason Foster, and ended up with a 2-0 defeat.
Post 71 actually got fairly hot at the end of the season, throwing two no-hitters in the final series against North Haven (one by ace Tom Lawrence, who also missed some time this summer), but it was too little, too late for a squad that looked like it was full of promise at the beginning of the season.
8) Stratford (10-17)
There were times when Stratford looked like it might have a winning record for the first time since joining Zone II three years ago, but like East Haven, they just couldn’t put together any consistency on the mound to make it happen.
Like Milford, the two high schools - Bunnell and Stratford - had very good high school seasons, but the Legion team just couldn’t get enough of them out to play to get them over the hump. As I said, there were flashes, sweeping Milford in three games being one of them as well as a win over zone champion Shelton, but no real consistency, and that is the key in Zone II.
9) North Haven (9-18)
This was a case where the high school season did have a correlation to Legion. After North Haven High finished 5-15 and had pitching woes, the Legion team had the same problem. Like Orange, Post 76 was very, very young, and although pitching was a problem, the arms didn’t get much help from the defense in some cases, particularly at the bumpy confines of Bailey Road.
But, like Orange, the future is bright for North Haven, with many younger players that should lead them closer to the postseason in 2009. This year marked the first time since 2001 that North Haven finished with a losing record.
10) New Haven (5-22)
It was good to see New Haven pick up a victory over Stratford in the season finale, just a few days after they lost a game by forfeit to them, the first and only one of the season in Zone II.
The problem for New Haven has always been trying to get its player to come to the park consistently, and early on, New Haven was doing a great job, but things got away from them quickly, and it was a long time between the fourth win and the fifth win last Saturday.
GAME OF THE WEEK
Hamden vs. TBA, Sunday - Hamden ace Dan Rhone is expected to get the start for Po st 88, wherever they end up. Their opponent will have had to play at least one game the day before, so Hamden has a lot going in its favor. But nine innings can be a long game, and it may come down to depth before all is said and done.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Tom Lawrence and Ed Shea, West Haven - Lawrence and Shea both pitched no-hitters at Piurek Field last week, both against North Haven. Lawrence actually allowed a run in a 7-1 win on Wednesday, while Shea picked up a 4-0 win on Saturday. However, in the third game of the season, North Haven posted a 7-4 win at Bailey Road.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS 0
Number of balls that left the infield for North Haven in Shea‘s no-hitter last Saturday. You would think that Shea would have to have a ton of strikeouts to accomplish that, but he had only three. In fact, Shea faced the minimum amount of batters despite walking three, he got North Haven to hit into three double plays, including one n the seventh inning.
WHO’S HOT
Branford - They did lose one game to Orange to allow Hamden to clinch second place, but this is the time of the year where Branford always catches their stride, and makes life miserable for whomever is in their way in the state tournament.
WHO’S NOT
Site Committee - You would think someone in the southern part of the state would step up to be a host for the play-in games, but instead we‘re left with New Britain, Simsbury, South Windsor, and Windsor Locks as options. Trumbull is hosting a Junior Legion play-in, why not Senior Legion?
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