Baseball Splits a Pair in NVL Tourney

The Woodland baseball team ended the regular season on a six-game winning streak with the fourth seed in the Naugatuck Valley League tournament, peaking at just the right time of the season. That solid play continued into Saturday’s quarterfinals with an 8-1 win over fifth-seeded Ansonia, but came to a crashing halt Tuesday night at Municipal Stadium after an 11-1 drubbing at the hands of top-ranked Seymour.

The Hawks started off with the Chargers on Saturday afternoon, a team with which they had split the previous two meetings. The Black and Gold wasted no time taking the advantage in the contest, putting up a pair of runs in the first. Senior second baseman Matt Sherman banged out a two-out single, stole second, and scored on junior pitcher Kyle Georgia’s double to center. Georgia scored on an error to make it 2-0.

Ansonia threatened to climb back into the game in the third. The Chargers loaded the bases with one out, but could only muster one run, as Georgia left the bases loaded by inducing a fielder’s choice and a strikeout.

WOODLAND 8, ANSONIA 1 Ansonia                001 000 0—1 4 4 Woodland            200 033 x—8 7 0 Pitchers: Peter Lovermi, Josh Eannotti (6) and Matt Rosbrough, catcher; Pitcher: Kyle Georgia and Jason Skibek, catcher. SO: Lovermi, 5; Georgia, 5. Records: A 10-11; W 14-7.

Woodland put the game to rest in the fifth and sixth innings, when it notched a pair of three-spots. In the fifth, it was an RBI single by Sherman, a sacrifice fly by Georgia, and a steal of home by senior left fielder John Merriman accounting for the runs. The Hawks followed up by duplicating the production next inning, fueled by an RBI single by senior third baseman Nick Boucher and a two-run single by Sherman to make it 8-1, sealing the trip to the semifinals.

Momentum looked to remain on Woodland’s side at the outset of Tuesday’s semifinal against Seymour, which suffered its only loss of the year to the Hawks on May 13. The Black and Gold threatened in the first, loading the bases with no outs. But Boucher was thrown out at home trying to tag up on a flyout by Georgia, ending the hopes of a crooked number in the first. Merriman was able to steal home to salvage a run for the Hawks.

Woodland tried to catch lightning in a bottle once again by sending senior Jason Skibek to the mound. He got off to a solid start, holding the Wildcats scoreless in the first two frames before an unearned run in the third tied the game.

Things started to go downhill for the Hawks in the fourth, when the Cats’ bats suddenly awoken. Four runs off Skibek in the fourth followed by five off Boucher in the fifth quickly made it 10-1, quashing any hopes Woodland had of a league title. Seymour scored one in the sixth to account for the final score.

SEYMOUR 11, WOODLAND 1 Woodland   100 000 0—  1   6 3 Seymour     001 451 x—11 14 2 Pitchers: Jason Skibek, Nick Boucher (5) and Jack DeBiase, catcher; Pitchers: Chris Renzoni, John Murphy (5), Jay Burns (7) and Danny Perez, catcher. SO: Renzoni, 4; Burns, 3; Skibek, 6; Boucher, 1. Records: W 14-8; S 21-1.

“We just caught them on a really good day,” Head Coach Joe Steele said. “They just happened to hit the lights out of the ball today. I thought we played pretty well defensively and we actually kept hitting the ball decent….We’re still very much looking forward to the state tournament. We’re still playing really good baseball right now.”

The Hawks open up play in the Class M tournament Monday at home. Their opponent will be announced Friday.