By Michael Letendre 

NEWINGTON – The Bristol American Legion Baseball squad is at the top of the Zone 1 food chain as of July 22.

And though it took a game or two to get there, Post 2 has 11 wins in Zone 1 action, tying Meriden for the lead in the division.

The current ledger is a far cry from where the locals started the campaign back on June 10. 

“We’ve played well,” said Bristol coach Jerry LaPenta after beating Newington on Tuesday. “Like I’ve said before, we started off [at] 1-3.” 

Off setbacks to West Hartford (4-3 loss on June 10), Avon (10-1, June 15), and Naugatuck (4-2, June 19), Post 2 lost three of its first four contests before a showdown at Newington from Legend’s Field on June 20 flipped the whole campaign around.

In the seventh inning of that Newington showdown, Bristol was leading 3-1 and tried to close out the game.

But Newington posted two runs on four hits in the seventh stanza to tie up the contest – forcing an extra frame.

Bristol ended up notching two runs in the top of the ninth and pitcher Roberto Cruz retired Newington in order in the eighth to help Bristol win, 5-3.

From that point of the season, Post 2 started a huge winning streak – seizing 10 of its last 11 Zone 1 games.

“When we came here (to Newington), we were 1-3 and were ahead 3-1 [against Newington] and blew it,” said LaPenta. “And they tied up 3-3. We were looking at 1-4 but since that [come from behind win], we’ve gone 10-1.” 

And there’s still a half-dozen Zone 1 games to play and Bristol has its collective sights on winning the division and making a little noise in the postseason. 

“Even if we somehow lose out on the tie-breaker [for the Regional Qualifier], we still have a good chance to win the zone,” said LaPenta. 

The best part is the kids are still in the mix, competing and will play some sort of postseason baseball.

The only thing they are not hoping for is more rain which gave the squad an unanticipated stretch of postponed games. 

“It’s been fun so far,” said LaPenta. “We had the eight days of just [doggy doo-doo] with the rain.” 

Catchers on the DL 

If the M.A.S.H. (that means Mobile Army Surgical Hospital to you youngsters) unit was active and available, just about the entire catching corps from Bristol would be in that field tent. 

Catcher is the toughest position to fill on a baseball team and LaPenta was left with limited choices to choose from on the roster when the Newington contest rolled around. 

“We’ve had some kids nicked up tonight,” said LaPenta. “Nate [Ouellette’s] thumb is all swollen. He couldn’t catch.” 

Ouellette hurt himself at the Berlin contest, attempting to catch the rockets pitcher Mike Lorenzetti was chucking on Monday.

Tyler Stickels would have been in line to catch but a shoulder injury is keeping him out of the line-up, while standout Owen Davis is on vacation. 

With option A, B, and C unavailable, jack-of-all-trades Zach Rinkavage was pressed into duty and the usual third basemen hung tough behind the plate.

He’s the definition of a baseball player and wherever LaPenta needs Rinkavage to play, the outstanding athlete always accepts the challenge. 

“He did a good job,” said LaPenta of Rinkavage. “He only caught one other time all year. He did a great job back there.” 

“It was big for Zach to be back there. He did a great job I thought.”   

Records as of Wednesday 

Zone 1 has Bristol and Meriden on top of the Zone 1 standings at 11-4 while West Hartford is a full game back at 10-5. 

Naugatuck is in fourth place at 9-5, Avon fell to fifth (8-6) while Newington – blanking Berlin 6-0 last night – is 6-9 in Zone 1 play.

How do the other zone’s look in terms of record?

Around the state, American Legion baseball has five other zones – all playing in competitive divisions.

Zone 2 has Madison (16-3) one full game in front of Wallingford (16-5) while old friend RCP (15-3) is in first place by two games over NCL Windsor Locks/Windsor (13-5) in Zone 3.

Zone 4 has an Eastern and Western conference.

In the East, Fairfield (19-5) is running away with the zone while Greenwich (18-6) is a half-game ahead of Danbury (18-7) in the West.

Finally in Zone 6, seven teams are divided into two divisions.

In the Northern Division, Tri-Town (10-7) carries a half-game lead over Willimantic (9-7) while on the Southern side, Waterford (17-2) is running away with the zone.