A collection of baseball players from in and around Waterbury got together Saturday at Municipal Stadium for a fall baseball doubleheader.
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| Will Morales winds up to deliver a pitch during his no-hitter on Saturday. (Photo courtesy of Frank Melillo) |
Frank Melillo, head coach of the Waterbury Senior Legion team, said the objective of putting the fall baseball team together is to play quality teams and take part in some tournaments. On Saturday, college coaches came to Municipal Stadium to get a look at players that haven’t committed yet.
“We are just trying to help players and play quality ball,” Melillo wrote in an email.
The Waterbury Senior Legion squad, made up of players from the Naugatuck Valley and Berkshire leagues, won both games of their doubleheader.
The first game was against Stamford, and Waterbury trailed 5-1 at one point. Waterbury got to within 5-4 entering the bottom of the seventh inning, then Liam O’Brien hit a walkoff RBI single for a 6-5 victory. O’Brien comes from Nonnewaug High School, where Melillo is the head baseball coach during the spring.
In the nightcap, Will Morales of Sacred Heart High School tossed a no-hitter in a 2-0 win over Batter’s Box of Hamden. Morales struck out 16 batters in his gem of a performance. The only blemish was a one-out walk in the top of the seventh. It was a great performance by the Sacred Heart right-hander.
Some other names on the Waterbury roster will sound familiar to area baseball fans: Fran Phalen (Holy Cross), Matt Bonvicini (Holy Cross), Peyton Stephens (Sacred Heart) and Ray Bartoli (Wolcott), just to name a few.
It may not feel like baseball season, but it still is for these local ballplayers.
