STATE TOURNEY ROUNDUP: Bristol Eastern baseball wins in 14 innings

BASEBALL

No. 20 seed Bristol Eastern started the Class L tournament on the road at No. 13 Fitch on Tuesday afternoon. That game was in Groton, and the Lancers traveled back home to Bristol with a 12-6 victory that wasn’t anywhere near as close as the final score.

On Wednesday, Eastern made another long bus ride, this time to Waterford to face another Lancer team seeded fourth in Class L. Not only was the bus ride long, but so was the game. The game went to extra innings, and Eastern finally pushed across an unearned run with two outs in the top of the 14th inning to go ahead 4-3. Eastern won by that same margin and moved on to the Class L quarterfinal round.

Ethan Ryan started for Eastern and pitched the first five innings. Cory Fradette came on in relief and went the next 6 2/3 innings. Ryan re-entered for Fradette and finished the final 2 1/3 innings. Ryan had a total of 12 strikeouts, and Fradette K’ed 10. Carson Sassu had two hits, and he threw out a potential winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Wolcott’s Brett Adams struck out 12 in 6 2/3 innings in his team’s 3-1 win over Northwestern Regional on Wednesday.
(Copyright, Sports on CT-69, file)

Being a No. 20 means Eastern (14-8) gets another road game on Saturday, this time at No. 12 Branford. The time of the game is still to be determined.

Third-seeded Wolcott got past No. 14 Northwestern Regional (Winsted) 3-1 at home in a Class M second round game behind the pitching of Brett Adams. The Eagles (20-4) will host sixth-seeded Bacon Academy of Colchester on Saturday at 1 p.m. in a quarterfinal game.

Adams struck out 12 and walked three in 6 2/3 innings. He gave up one run on three hits and only came out because of the 110-pitch count rule. Adams was allowed to finish his last batter, but had to come out with two outs in the top of the seventh after 112 pitches (68 strikes). Dane Hassan struck out the final batter for the save.

Trey Nastri had two singles and an RBI, and Tino Ciarlo added a solo home run. Nick Longo singled and drove in a run, and Hassan had a single and a run scored.

SOFTBALL

Eighth-seeded Bristol Eastern couldn’t get its offense going and lost 4-0 to ninth-seeded South Windsor in a Class LL second round game in Bristol. Erin Girard pitched all seven innings for the Lancers (15-5) and gave up four runs (two earned) on eight hits with six strikeouts. Jenna Winters doubled for Eastern. Liza Corliss and Paige McLaughlin each had a single. It was the last game for seniors Jordan Fitzsimons and Brianna Norton.

Eighth-seeded Wolcott lost 5-1 to ninth-seeded St. Joseph of Trumbull at home in a Class M second round contest. Nicole Antonowicz pitched all seven innings for the Eagles (18-6) in the loss. Wolcott finished with four hits, one each from Antonowicz, Madison Rotella and Jayda Cavanaugh. Cavanaugh doubled and drove in the only Eagle run. Rotella doubled and scored the run. It was the last game for seniors Cavanaugh, Antonowicz, Mary Sanzone, Alayna Greene, Marissa Morales and Nicole Ward.

No. 16 seed Sacred Heart was blanked by top-seeded Stafford in their Class S second round game. It was the final game for seniors Erin Keeley, Kaitlynn Keeley and Kayleigh O’Donnell.