The Bethlehem Plowboys may have put more of a stranglehold on the top seed for the upcoming Connecticut Tri-State Baseball League playoffs, but the rest of the picture is muddled.
Bethlehem sits at 15-1. Behind them are the Tri-Town Trojans and Burlington Hunters, who are tied in the loss column. Tri-Town has played one more game than Burlington, which it won for a 14-3 record, compared to 13-3 for the Hunters.
There’s a big separation between the top three and the next four. The Valley Ducks are fourth at 10-7, followed closely by the Amenia Monarchs in fifth (9-7). Amenia lost a tough one to Burlington, 8-7, on Sunday. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Monarchs.
In sixth is the CT Sliders (9-8), followed by the Winsted Whalers in seventh (6-7).
What’s important for the Ducks, Monarchs, Sliders and Whalers is staying in – or catapulting into – one of the top five seeds for the playoffs. The top five seeds don’t play in the opening wildcard round, which is single-game elimination.
Valley has received strong pitching from Jacobi Bouchard, Kyle Daddona (pictured above in a 2022 game against Tri-Town) and Chris Oliwa. Oliwa, Nick Forino, Alex Hinkle and Frank Frosceno have helped pace the offense for the Ducks. Valley takes on Burlington on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Dunkin’ Park in Hartford.
The Sliders would look very familiar to NVL baseball fans. There’s former St. Paul players Josh Dobratz, Pat Smith and AJ Lorenzetti; Wolcott’s Tyler Fernandes and Wilby’s David Colella, to name a few.
The Naugatuck Scorpions (5-9), Wolcott Scrappers (5-11), Canton Crushers (4-12) and Valley Kraken (4-13) sit in the 8-11 seeds. Eleven out of 12 teams make the playoffs. As of Monday night, the Torrington Thunder (2-15) are on the outside looking in.
