The Naugatuck Dogs finished the regular season 10-8, not a particularly great record for a team that looks to contend for the Connecticut Tri-State Baseball League every year.
Naugatuck has turned it up in the Tri-State League playoffs, winning all six games it has played. The offense has scored less than seven runs in a game once, and they put up five in that contest.
“The bats came alive. The bats, in the last two games, I think we put up 20 hits, 25 hits,” Jeff Rustico said. “We’re a tough team to beat if our bats are on.”
Rustico was the beneficiary of the offensive outburst on Wednesday night. After taking the first game of the semifinal series against the Tri-Town Trojans 10-4, the Dogs finished the series with a 7-2 victory on Wednesday at Waterbury’s Municipal Stadium. At one point, the Dogs led the Trojans 7-1.
” It’s pretty nice when you have a six-run lead,” Rustico said.
Rustico threw a nine-inning complete game, struck out 10 and gave up eight hits.
“They hit a bunch of balls hard, but our defense just made plays. That’s the name of the game,” Rustico said. “Our defense is solid, our bats are obviously really good. I don’t think many teams want to see us due to that. It’s just throwing the ball over the plate, not walking guys.”
On offense, Ryan Plourde was 2-for-4 with two RBI while Brendan Slattery went 3-for-5 with two doubles and an RBI. Rustico had two hits and an RBI while Devin Murphy and Ryan Russell each added a hit and RBI. Kyle Murphy scored two runs.
“We’re a small group, a small team. I think I play 14 guys, we’re not out there recruiting, pulling guys in. We’ve pretty much had the same team for the last 10 years,” manager Jay Harlamon said. “This says a lot about their character. We finished the regular season 10-8, we were struggling getting people, but we knew we could get to this point. We knew we could, we just had to show up.”
Naugatuck swept the Burlington Hunters by scores of 7-4 and 16-0 in the first round, then dispatched Blasius Chevrolet 5-1 and 8-5 in the second round. The Dogs are back in the World Series and are looking for their second championship in three years. They will play the Terryville Black Sox next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (if necessary) at Torrington’s Fuessenich Park. All game times are set for 7 p.m.
Captions: Top right — Naugatuck’s Devin Murphy holds Tri-Town’s Danny McCarty on first base. Bottom left — Naugatuck’s Ryan Plourde makes contact with a pitch. (Copyright, Sports on CT-69)
Gallery
Here are my photos from Wednesday night’s game.
