The Bristol Central and Bristol Eastern baseball teams are going through a youth movement, to say the least.
The Rams (3) and Lancers (4) have just seven seniors combined on their rosters. The Central seniors are Zachary Vanasse, captain JT Clark and Bryan Capezzone. The Eastern seniors are Cole Latko, Elliot Norris, Jaydon Churchill and Conor McCormick.
Central started junior Frank Spirito IV on the mound Monday evening at Muzzy Field against Eastern, which countered with sophomore Ryan Maglio. Freshmen and sophomores were prevalent in the lineups for both teams, and that’s the rule and not the exception.
“Not only young, but inexperienced. For us, it’s going to be a matter of keep developing,” Central coach Bunty Ray said following his team’s 8-1 win. “I think they’ve gotten a lot of experience. They have freshmen out there, we have freshmen out there. To be honest with you, playing as a freshman in this game usually never happens. I can only name a few, so we’re playing a lot of young kids, and hopefully the experience pays off for both of us and Bristol baseball will be right back where it needs to be.”
Eastern followed Maglio with freshman Owen Myers and sophomore Caleb Molinsky in relief. It’s not the easiest situation for young pitchers to be thrown into, but experience is experience.
Eastern trying to secure state bid: The Lancers fell to 7-11 with the loss to the Rams on Monday.
Teams need to win 40% of their games to qualify for the state tournament, but there’s a caveat. If there aren’t 32 teams with that 40%, the teams with the next highest win percentages qualify. Eastern’s 7-11 record gives it a .389 win percentage with two games remaining in its season. The Lancers are 31st out of 32 teams, with Farmington sitting at 32nd at 7-12. The RedHawks have one game left in their schedule. As of today, both teams would be in the tournament. Avon is 6-12 with two games left in the regular season.
Eastern can guarantee its state tournament spot with a win over Wethersfield (15-3) on Wednesday or Bloomfield/AAE/Bulkeley (3-15) on Thursday. Eastern owns tiebreakers over both Farmington and Avon, but if those two teams go 8-12 and the Lancers finish 7-13, the Lancers are out. A win would take care of everything for Eastern.
PHOTO CAPTION: The Bristol Central, top, and Bristol Eastern, below, baseball teams are both very young. The Rams and Lancers are hoping growing pains result in future successes. (Copyright, Sports on CT-69)
