Friday, July 13, 2012

KEVIN D. ROBERTS/Farmington Valley Sports
I covered an American Legion baseball game on Thursday evening at Simsbury's Memorial Park between Torrington at Simsbury.
The Torrington P38s (10-14) couldn't get their bats going and lost 2-0 to complete-game pitcher Jason Byers and Post 84. You can read more about Torrington here. The box score for the game is below this post.
With the win, Simsbury (15-9) clinched a berth in the American Legion state tournament's play-in round. Simsbury has won seven straight games. The streak started with a 2-1 win over Torrington on July 5 at Fuessenich Park. You can read more about Simsbury's hot streak here.

BOX SCORE

Simsbury 2, Torrington P38s 0
At Memorial Park, Simsbury
Torrington       000 000 0—0-5-2
Simsbury         002 000 x—2-5-1
WP: Jason Byers. LP: Pat Austin. 2B: S—E.J. Lavoie, Josh Holihan.
Records: Torrington 10-14; Simsbury 15-9.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Tim Driscoll talks Northwest YMCA Lasers, plus his new Waterbury job

KEVIN D. ROBERTS/Register Citizen
After a successful run as Northwest YMCA Laser head coach, Tim Driscoll will be moving on to the Greater Waterbury YMCA, where he will be their swimming coach. Read my story on Driscoll and watch a video interview with him here.
The move makes plenty of sense for Driscoll, given that it will put him in the same city -- Waterbury -- where he works as a teacher at Crosby High School. It will cut down on the 14-hour days that Driscoll spent while coaching the Lasers. When he was teaching, a day would often begin at 6 a.m. and end at 8:30 p.m.
Like his swimmers, Driscoll is dedicated to the Lasers. During the summer, the team practices for two hours per day, five days a week at two different YMCAs (Winsted and Torrington). During practice on Wedneday at the Winsted YMCA, Driscoll was constantly watching his team when he wasn't being interviewed by me. Driscoll also plenty of instructions for his swimmers.
Driscoll's hard workouts pay off, according to Eric Traub, a former Torrington High and Laser standout who just completed his sophomore year at Columbia University.
"He's had a lot of impact [on me]," Traub said. "He's improved me a lot."
Another Traub, Matt, is going to YMCA Long Course Nationals for the first time. He will be joined by Chickee Nickerson and Hailey Martel. Here's what Driscoll had to say about Matt Traub.
"He puts the time in, he puts the effort in, he trains hard," Driscoll said.
That's all Driscoll has been looking for as Laser coach. The Lasers have league championships coming up. The Lasers will compete in the Yankee Cluster championships, then Nickerson, Martel and Matt Traub will travel to Atlanta to compete in the YMCA's Long Course Nationals. The neat part about the Long Course meet is that it will be held on the campus of Georgia Tech, which hosted swimming during the 1996 Summer Olympics.
The Lasers will need to find another solid coach to keep the momentum going from Driscoll's time as head coach.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Jordan Williams expected to be added to Atlanta Hawks summer league roster

Torrington native Jordan Williams is expected to be added to the Atlanta Hawks summer league roster, according to a blog post yesterday on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's web site. Williams officially joins the Hawks on July 11, when NBA trades and free agency deals become official. Williams played in 43 games last season for the former New Jersey turned Brooklyn Nets. He averaged 4.6 points and 3.6 rebounds in 14.8 minutes per game.
According to Michael Cunningham's blog post on the AJC web site, the roster is for a three-day mini cap and the Las Vegas Summer League, which starts Friday.
You can view the full roster on Cunningham's blog post here.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Burlington/Harwinton, Torrington, Winsted have tough roads to American Legion state play-in qualification

KEVIN D. ROBERTS/Register Citizen
I covered a crucial American Legion Zone 1 doubleheader today between the Torrington P38s and Burlington/Harwinton. Both teams got a win out of the day, but each has a lot of work to do to reach the American Legion State Tournament play-in rounds.
To read about the games, check out photos and watch videos from the doubleheader, click here. Box scores from the games are below this post.

Both Burlington/Harwinton (10-11) and Torrington (10-12) have tall tasks ahead of them over the home stretch of the regular season. The boys from posts 122 and 137 can only lose once the rest of the way to meet the 15-12 record required to make state play-ins. The P38s can't lose at all over the final five games.

Winsted (10-11) can also only lose one more time this season. Post 43 split a doubleheader with Avon on Sunday. You can read more about that here.

Here's each team's schedule for this week:

TORRINGTON (10-12): Wednesday vs. Winsted; Thursday at Simsbury; Friday at Terryville

BURLINGTON/HARWINTON (10-11): Monday at Simsbury; Wednesday at Avon; Thursday vs. Unionville (Central Connecticut State University); Friday at Wolcott (BAW Complex)

WINSTED: Tuesday at Southington; Wednesday at Torrington; Thursday vs. Bristol; Friday at Southington


BOX SCORES

Game 1
Burlington/Harwinton 6, Torrington P38s 2
At Fuessenich Park, Torrington
Bur-Har           001 030 2—6-9-4
Torrington       100 000 1—2-8-3
WP: Sam Brooke. LP: Will Austin. 2B: BH—Zane Milbourn; T—Austin Patenaude, Conor Shugrue. 3B: BH—John Arel. HR: BH—Brady Hecht.
Records: Burlington/Harwinton 10-10; Torrington 9-12.

Game 2
Torrington P38s 1, Burlington/Harwinton 0
At Fuessenich Park, Torrington
Bur-Har           000 000 0—0-4-3
Torrington       001 000 x—1-6-1
WP: Joe Mateo. LP: Joe Bruzas.
Records: Burlington/Harwinton 10-11; Torrington 10-12.

Friday, July 6, 2012

More highlights from Wednesday's All-Star festivities at Fuessenich Park

It was a day full of baseball fun at Fuessenich Park on the Fourth of July.
The day started with a Public Home Run Derby, which moved on to a Home Run Derby featuring the Tri-State Baseball League, the Torrington Titans, and Winsted’s Justin Morhardt, a 39th round draft pick of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Here are highlights from the Tri-State – Titan derby, which was won by Paul Novakowski of Tri-State’s Brass City Brew.
The night was capped off by a pitcher’s duel in the All-Star Game, which ended in a 2-2 tie. Here are highlights from the game, which had a hyper-local ending when Torrington native Conor Bierfeldt tied the game at 2 for the Titans in the bottom of the ninth with a home run off of Litchfield Cowboy pitcher Chris Blazek, a Litchfield native and former Minor Leaguer in the Houston Astros system.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Plenty of fireworks at Titans-Tri-State All-Star Festivites on Fourth of July

JENNIFER ROYALS/For Register Citizen
The Torrington Titans and Tri-State Baseball League put on a good show all day on the Fourth of July at Fuessenich Park.
Tri-State led 2-1 entering the bottom of the ninth and had hard-throwing Litchfield Cowboy Chris Blazek on the mound. Titan batter Conor Bierfeldt looked at three of them for a 2-1 count, then blasted a fourth one for this solo home run to tie the game. The game ended in a 2-2 tie. Here's the story on the game. Included in the link are photos from Jennifer Royals.
During the day, two home run derbies were held. In the public Home Run Derby, Winsted's Justin Morhardt edged out Tri-State Hall of Famer Rich Scott in a swing-off. Morhardt needed three homers to win and got them on three consecutive swings. You can watch all of those swings here.
Before the All-Star Game, a helicopter made a special delivery of two baseballs to the park for the ceremonial first pitches. Those first pitches were thrown out by Sgt. Jonathon Conlin and Cpl. Jeffrey Fonti, who are both Marines. Conlin and Fonti are both long-time Tri-State players, Conlin with the Bethlehem Plowboys and Fonti with the Brass City Brew. The baseballs were presented to them by Gilbert Black, a former Negro League players who was on hand for the festivities. Black is the spokesman for the Negro League conventions held around the country. He had his memorabilia from his playing days on display at the park.
Look for more on the All-Star Game on this blog on Thursday night.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Plenty of local baseball fun coming on the Fourth of July

The Torrington Titans and Tri-State Baseball League will host their second annual Fourth of July festivities tomorrow at Fuessenich Park. Here's the full story.
The day starts with a public Home Run Derby at 3 p.m. The first 50 participants who pay $10 will get 10 swings and a chance to hit the ball out of Fuessenich. Registration begins at 2:30 p.m. for the derby. 
The winner of the public derby gets the chance to hit with players from the Titans and Tri-State. That derby begins at 4:15 p.m.
Weather permitting, a military helicopter will drop off baseballs that will be thrown out as ceremonial first pitches by Sgt. Jonathon Conlin and Cpl. Jeffrey Fonti, both Marines. Conlin has been a long-time member of the Bethlehem Plowboys while Fonti is a long-time member of the Brass City Brew.
At 7 p.m., the Tri-State all-stars take on the Titans. Former Titan Tyler Erickson will pitch for Tri-State, along with former Torrington Twister Joey Serafin, who made it as high as 'AA' in the Chicago White Sox organization. Former minor leaguer Chris Blazek of Litchfield will play right field for Tri-State, but could also pitch.
Former Negro League player Gilbert Black, who is the spokesman for the Negro League's conventions, will be in attendance. He will be signing autographs and displaying memorabilia from his time in the Negro Leagues.
There is also information on July 14 and July 28 games that will benefit the United Way Glenn Winn Jr. Campership Fund. 
You can read about all of this at the above link. Tomorrow, look for coverage from Assistant Sports Editor Kevin D. Roberts throughout the day.