By Michael Letendre

WALLINGFORD – Over regular season play, the Bristol Greeners of the Greater Hartford Twilight Baseball League dominated the Wallingford Cardinals – going a neat 3-0 against the squad.

But the stakes were a bit higher this past Sunday when the programs squared off in the GHTBL Play-In Game from Pat Wall Field in Wallingford to determine which team would advance to the double elimination bracket of the postseason tournament which commenced on Monday.

The Greeners hung around in the fray, trailing just 1-0 through four completed frames, but the Cardinals punched in seven runs in the fifth inning to seize the game as Bristol fell by an 8-0 final.

Wallingford (7-18 overall) advanced, slotting into the eighth seed while Bristol ended its campaign at 5-20.  

The Greeners made it a game thanks to the pitching of Casey Horjus, throwing extremely well over his four innings of work.

He allowed one earned run on five hits, walked two and struck out two to keep the home team in check offensively.

“We wanted to have him come in and get four or five innings [of work],” said first-year Greeners coach Trevor Mays. “That was the plan and then be able to go to Kenny Knox after that. [Horjus] did his job. He did really well. He threw a lot of strikes.”

Knox hung tough but a couple errors, some well-placed balls, and simple bad luck foiled his relief effort in the fifth frame.

Wallingford chucker Alex Koletar was outstanding – going the distance over an impressive three-hit, five-K shutout to get his squad into the double-elimination bracket of postseason play.

The Cardinals tallied 11 hits as Evan Wilkinson went 3-for-4 at the dish, blasting out a double and collecting two RBI.

Owen Pincince and Sam DeMaio also generated multi-hit games for Wallingford.

Trevor and Josh Nohilly, along with Bryan Capezzone, all scooped hits for the Greeners.

With the contest still scoreless going into the top of the second inning, Bristol’s Ivan Ramos reached on an error and Stephen Warkoski walked to put runners on first and second with no outs.

Koletar proceeded to induce two pop-ups and a K to end the Bristol threat.

On the flip side, Wallingford put its first two runners on base in the bottom of the second – eventually getting men on second and third – but a line-drive was caught by Warkoski at second base and after another pop-up, the rally was squashed and the 0-0 game went into the third inning.

Bristol nearly had two runners in scoring position in the top of the third as Capezzone belted a single to right while Trevor Nohilly popped a base hit into left.

But Capezzone was gunned down sliding into third base for the first out and after two groundouts, the Cardinals were back at the plate.

With one on in the bottom of the third, Wilkinson smashed his double to left to score a run as Wallingford led 1-0 through three.

In the fourth, Warkoski was plunked by a pitch and Josh Nohilly sent a nubber between third base and shortstop with one away – putting two on for Bristol – but two fielder’s choices ended the jaunt for the visiting aggression.

Horjus nabbed a line-drive on the mound in the fourth frame and just missed turning a slick double play as the defense held through four with Bristol still down by just a single run.

“I thought we made some plays that were able to keep us in the game for a while,” said Mays. “I was really happy with how everybody played.”

After that Josh Nohilly hit, Koletar retired the final 11 Bristol batters as Wallingford’s offense exploded for seven runs in the fifth.

And after a two-RBI single by Pincince and a bloop base hit from Wilkinson, Wallingford led by an imposing 8-0 edge through five innings.

“They got on Kenny a little bit,” said Mays of the Wallingford offense.

Knox went 1-2-3 in the sixth, tallying a strike out in the bottom of the stanza, but Bristol was not able to score in the seventh – falling by an 8-0 final to end the campaign.

“They really put the bat on the ball pretty well,” said Mays of Wallingford. “They found some holes in the middle of the game.”

Greater Hartford Twilight Baseball League – 2022 Postseason Play-In Game

WALLINGFORD CARDINALS 8, BRISTOL GREENERS 0

from Pat Wall Field, Wallingford

Bristol Greeners (5-20)                     000 000 0 – 0 3 3

Wallingford Cardinals (7-18)          001 070 0 – 8 12 0  

WP – Alex Koletar (Wallingford); LP – Casey Horjus(Bristol)

Bristol Batting 

2B – None

3B – None

HR – None

Wallingford Batting 

2B – Evan Wilkinson

3B – None 

HR – None

Records: Wallingford 7-18 overall; Bristol 5-20 overall.