By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – It might have taken a week or two, but the Bristol American Legion baseball team is in second place of the Zone 1 standings.
And that slot holds some significant weight to it in terms of the Regional Qualifier and an automatic bid into postseason play (more on that in TBE Sports Sunday).
Post 2 is once again the hottest team in the zone, winning its last three games while posting a strong 9-4 Zone 1 ledger overall.
Throughout the zone, several teams must make up games and, in the process, some of the top programs will lose a game or two along the way.
“All these other teams, they’ve got a lot of games to make up,” said Bristol coach Jerry LaPenta. “They’re going to be crunched together.”
That 9-4 ledger has the Bristol team just a half-game out of first place.
West Hartford (8-2 Zone 1, 9-2 overall) has been the Zone 1 leader for quite some time this summer.
Meriden, who was on a nifty five-game winning streak, had its luck snapped on Monday, falling to Avon by a 7-5 final – dropping to third place at 6-3.
Avon (6-4) is in fourth place and Naugatuck (5-4) resides in fifth to complete the top five of Zone 1.
Each one of those squads must make-up games to draw even with Bristol in terms of games played.
With all those contests to go, expect more downward movement from the top teams in Zone 1.
“We’ve played 13 zone games. I don’t think anyone’s played more than” ten games said LaPenta.
If everything goes off without a hitch today, the Zone 1 schedule sees Avon at Newington (4-6), West Hartford at Berlin, while Meriden must deal with Simsbury twice today in a doubleheader from Memorial Field in Simsbury.
Simsbury (0-6) is truly due for its first win of the campaign and with two showdowns against Meriden, the opportunity to seize that victory is at hand.
And Bristol, with its Zone 1 leading nine wins, will just let the rest of the division figure it out on its own while taking care of its own business later in the week.
“We’ve already got those wins in the bank,” said LaPenta. “You can’t take those away. It’s nice.”
Pitch count status
As of Wednesday, Bristol’s Matt Beaucar is eligible to pitch on Wednesday as is Alex Canzellarini.
And big Mike Lorenzetti can throw as soon as Thursday but will probably be held off until the weekend with a showdown against Avon looming.
Beaucar threw just 57 pitches in Bristol’s 11-1 demolition of Simsbury this past Sunday and could be pressed into duty on Thursday as Post 2 travels to Hall high school in West Hartford to battle the Zone 1 leader over a huge clash.
The teams split the regular season this year, 1-1.
On the schedule
After the entanglement with West Hartford on Thursday, Post 2 is home for a game against Newington at 7 p.m. from Muzzy Field.
And then in an anticipated rematch, Bristol travels to Buckingham Field on Sunday to square off against Avon.
Game time is 5:30 p.m.
Juniors win
This past Sunday, after the senior squad took care of business, the juniors got to the pay window as well – sinking Simsbury by a 6-2 final from Muzzy Field.
Bristol used an eight-hit attack to snare its second victory of the season (2-6) as Bristol chucker Ryan Maglio threw a four-hitter over a solid 97-pitch performance.
Post 2 scored single runs in the first and third innings before adding two in the fourth to make it a 4-0 contest.
Simsbury nabbed a two-spot in the bottom of the fifth but solitary runs by Bristol in the sixth and seventh frames made it a four-run deficit for Post 84.
