Griswold baseball eliminated in ECC semifinals
NEW LONDON - The Griswold baseball team ran into Stonington's "A-game" Thursday in the ECC Division II tournament semifinals at Mitchell College.
The Bears finished a game behind the Wolverines, who won ECC Division III's regular season with a 6-2 record. Still, many ECC baseball followers considered Stonington a dangerous team and one of the favorites to reach the postseason final at Dodd Stadium.
Stonington "mercied" Griswold for the second time in two weeks in a 12-1 victory to land a spot with Lyman Memorial, the Division IV champ, at 6:30 p.m. on Friday.
The Division II semifinals were moved from Dodd Stadium to Mitchell early Thursday after a two-hour thunderstorm made Dodd's dirt infield and grass unplayable. Mitchell features an artificial surface, which Stonington took advantage of with a number of gap hits.
"We only got three hits and Stonington had 13 or so," Griswold first-year coach Tim Lake said. "They did the same to us (a 16-1 win) about two weeks ago. They hit up and down the lineup and we knew they'd be tough to beat even though we finished ahead of them in the division. It took a monumental effort by Bacon (three homers and eight RBIs by Chris Lusignan) for Stonington to lose its last division game to allow us an opportunity to win."
Griswold (15-7 overall) gave the ball to freshman pitcher Kimmie Boyce, who was 5-0 including an early-season win over Stonington (14-8). The emergence of Boyce is one reason the Wolverines improved from an 11-win team last year to a division champ.
But the Bears were on the big right-hander's assortment of curveballs, jumping to a 7-1 lead in the third before Lake inserted ace Sean Garvin on the mound.
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Michael O'Keefe and Alex DePerry (two hits, three RBIs) each hit run-scoring doubles in a four-run third.
Stonington starting pitcher Aaron LoPresto allowed just three hits and retired the last 14 batters to get the win for Stonington.
"The last two games, beating Bacon in the quarters and rolling over Griswold, is the way I thought we'd play this year," Stonington coach Bob Cahoone said. "We've been up and down, but I hope we're peaking at the right time."
Griswold has tormented Stonington in major sports this year. In football, the Wolverines stopped an unbeaten Bear squad on a last-play goal-line stand to pull out a win. The basketball team topped Stonington at home in the final divisional game to snatch the DIII title. And the Wolverine baseball team slipped by Stonington to win the DIII regular season baseball title.
"Griswold is a good team but we feel we deserved to win the division," LoPresto said. "They've had our number this year in a number of sports, but we're going to Dodd Stadium. It helps you a lot as a pitcher when you're team supports you with 13 hits."
Griswold took a 1-0 lead in the first when KinKade Rubino reached on a leadoff infield single, stole second and later scored. LoPresto got out of a bases-loaded jam with one out to escape further damage.
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The Bears answered with three in the second on hits by Aaron Linicus, LoPresto, DePerry and Dylan Cimini.
Despite the loss, Lake remained upbeat, thinking about the regular season and peering ahead to the state tournament.
"Griswold won seven games two years ago, eleven last year and we go into the states with 15 now," Lake said. 'We have a lot of good young players, so Griswold baseball is in a good place."
This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Griswold baseball eliminated in ECC tourney semifinals
