Coginchaug Falls to Westport 8-2 in Game One of State Finals

The Westport Little League All-Stars beat Coginchaug 8-2 on Saturday afternoon at Recreation Park in Southington to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three state Little League championship series.

Westport trailed early but earned the team's first come-from-behind victory of the summer off the arm of team ace Chad Knight and untimely errors by the usually reliable Coginchaug defense.

“The first game is absolutely huge," Westport manager Tim Rogers said. "That said, I’ve followed these guys. They’ve showed that they're not afraid to have to win a couple in a row either, so we don’t think its over.”

Coginchaug managed to get to Knight early. Ryan Genest led off the game with a bloop single into shallow right field and scored when shortstop Ricky Offenberg fielded a ground ball off the bat of Cole Niedmann but tossed the ball over his second baseman's head. John John Jose followed with a single to score Niedman to give Coginchaug a 2-0 lead.

Coginchaug starter James Salemme was in control through the first two innings and pitched out a jam in the third. With base runners at first and second, Knight drilled a pitch 50 feet over the fence in foul territory.

After Knight reached on an error Salemme got Harry Azadian to strike out with the bases loaded.

After striking out Niedmamm, Jose and Griffin Saks in order in the third, Knight gave up a single to Connor Rulnick before striking out the side in the fourth inning.

Salemme had recorded two outs in the fourth inning when Matt Stone's groundball got past Niedmann and Tatin Llamas came around to score. Chris Drbal then hit a two-run double to give Westport a 3-2 lead.

Max Popoken's two-run home run to centerfield made it 5-2.

Knight retired Coginchaug in order in the top of the fifth inning.

An error by Jose in the fifth inning on a ground ball by Charlie Roof would lead to three more runs for Westport, and a final score of 8-2.

“You can’t make that many errors. You can’t give teams like this that many outs," said Coginchaug manager Ken Vallone. "We just made too many errors."

Rogers said his team may have been a little tight early on but credited Knight, who ended with 15 strike-outs, with keeping the game close.

“What we needed out of him is to put those two runs behind him and to keep it right there and that’s exactly what he did. He’s just tough,” Rogers said.