By Michael Letendre 

BRISTOL – The Bristol American Junior Legion Baseball program dropped its last four games of the regular season – falling to 7-12 overall.

After a 1-6 start, Post 2 played .500 ball the rest of the way and earned a spot in the 2021 CT State Junior Division Tournament.

In fact, Bristol pulled out a 7-8 ledger with four games left to play in regular season – nearly getting back to .500 before running thin on pitching during the past weekend’s games.

On Saturday, Torrington defeated Post 2 twice, sinking the locals 15-5 and 9-1 from Riley Field in Bristol.

In game one, Ryan Maglio dropped the decision while Michael Roalf threw 70 pitches over 3.2 innings in game two for the loss.

And then on Sunday, Post 2 battled West Hartford and Simsbury over two tough games but Bristol could not generate a win.

But Post 2 was in it against West Hartford – trailing just 3-2 through three innings.

West Hartford then went on a 6-1 burst to secure a 9-3 edge – winning the contest by six runs.

Cole Latko went 4.2 innings in the loss while in the second game, Post 2 hung around against Simsbury.

Bristol was the ‘away’ team at the event and after one frame of play, Post 84 went in front, 6-1.

The deficit surged to 8-1 and then 9-2 before Post 2 made it a game.

Bristol scored three times in both the fifth and sixth innings to trim the deficit to 11-8 through six.

Simsbury threw a scoreless seventh to end the event as Bristol fell by three runs.

Elliot Norris dropped the decision for Bristol.

How many Bristol pitchers are in the stew?

Over the past weekend, Bristol coach Bill Mason used just about every pitcher he had on his roster.

Four games in two days created a bit of havoc but Post 2 got through it.

Who pitched for Bristol over Saturday and Sunday?

Here’s the extensive list:

Name Innings Pitched

Ryan Maglio 1.1

Elliot Norris 1.2

Michael Roalf 6.1

Mitchell Crowley 2.0

Jose Feliciano 2.1

Cole Latko 4.2

Lorenzo Stisser 1.1

Jaydon Churchill 5.1

That’s eight pitchers throwing one-plus inning over the final days of the regular season.

State Tournament opponent set for Bristol’s 17U program

The 17U state tournament pairings were released on Sunday and Post 2 is in the mix.

Twelve teams are set in both the Northern and Southern Divisions as twenty-four squads qualified overall.

The Bristol squad is ranked 12th in the North and will battle No. 5 Willimantic (Zone 6, 10-6 record, .625 winning percentage) in a first round showdown from Recreation Park at 5:45 p.m.

If Post 2 advances in the single elimination fray, the locals travels to fourth ranked Enfield (Zone 3, 15-7, .682) the following day.

Enfield earned a bye in tournament play.

West Hartford (Zone 1, 16-4, .800) is the top seed in the North while Wallingford (Zone 2, 19-1, .950) is No. 1 in the South.

The 17U state champion will be decided on Sunday from Ceppa Field in Meriden.