By Michael Letendre
MIDDLETOWN – The Bristol American Legion 17U baseball squad ran into a buzz saw in the form of Zone 3 foe Torrington in the first round of the Connecticut Super Regional bracket on Monday afternoon.
Post 2 dropped a tough 11-1 mercy ruled decision to Post 38 in the first game of a Region B doubleheader from Pat Kidney Field in Middletown.
Bristol fell to 13-10 overall off the losing effort.
Entering the postseason fray, Torrington – the Zone 3 champs – were the second ranked squad overall and ended up getting the better of Bristol on Monday.
Bristol’s Caleb Molinsky threw 58 pitches versus Torrington over a tough losing effort against an extremely aggressive hitting squad.
Brian Grabowski and Drew Martineau both saw some time on the hill for Post 2 but were on pitch counts as Bristol hopes to have a long state tournament run and will need arms down the road.
With the loss, Post 2 fell to 2-2 in 17U tournament play.
However, Bristol gets another shot at it tonight, again from Pat Kidney Field in Middletown.
The double elimination tournament has Post 2 squaring off against another Zone 3 foe, Farmington.
Game time is set for 4:30 p.m.
Yesterday, Farmington fell to Naugatuck 2-0 in the nighttime affair of the double dip.
Bristol played Farmington twice this season
The squads are very familiar with each other as Farmington went 2-0 against Bristol during regular season play.
Over a four day stretch, Farmington rolled up 7-4 and 3-0 victories.
In the most recent bout, Post 2 was limited to just one hit back on July 9.
Tyler Ryan had the only hit for Bristol that day from Riley Field.
Bristol pitcher Jonathan Montgomery battled from start to finish over a tough losing effort.
He allowed three runs on just six hits over an 87 pitch showing – walking only one batter.
Farmington’s Arie Deluca won the game for Farmington who went 13-6 during regular season competition for third place overall in Zone 3.
