Coginchaug Little League: A Summer to Remember

By Scott Strang

The 2013 summer Little League tournament season has finally drawn to a close. Having been either in the press box, the bleachers or the dugout for 33 games over the past 35 days, I thought I would put together my thoughts on what stands out most from what has been (with all due respect to the 1993 Coginchaug softball team) the most successful year of postseason play in the 54 year history of Little League in Durham and Middlefield.  These are the things that I’ll remember, and since everyone reading this has their own favorite moment, feel free to comment and add some of your own memories.

First and foremost, the success of this league comes from dedicated parents, coaches, and volunteers. I have to call out a few who were our biggest help in pulling off the hosting of 31 games between June 27 and July 14. Danielle and Andy Kleczkowski, along with Kristen DeMartino, Melissa Ryer and Michele Wenchell were fantastic in keeping concessions going night after night, and certainly got a lot of support from parents at all levels in the league. Mike Mancini was a constant in getting the many softball games ready, and Bill Biro, Nick Faiella, Rick Quirk, Tom Wenchell and Rick Ryan all put in a lot of time when needed to keep the baseball games going. There were many others I should be thanking, but these were the ones that we saw night after night to help us get it all done.

As for the games, there were a lot of great moments we hosted here at Durham, and on the road in the section tournaments.

The Killingworth 9-10 baseball team had gotten badly beaten in their first 3 mercy-shortened games, so when Charlie Martino dropped a bunt suicide squeeze play to bring home Ryan Luther for a 5-4 come-from behind, walk-off win over East Haddam in their final game, you would have thought they just won a state title. Charlie is the nephew of Coginchaug Farm Softball director Deb Mariani, and a regular the past 2 years at our spring pitch clinic, so it was extra nice that he got the winning hit. Those kids turned a very rough week into one they will remember for a long time.

The same happened when the Chester/Deep River 9-10 softball team upset unbeaten Coginchaug 13-11. Oddly enough both teams scored 7 runs in the 2nd inning in a wild contest. The game didn’t really mean anything in the standings. Coginchaug would still go on to win the district, and even with the win, 0-2 Chester/Deep River could not get into the district playoff, but you would never know it from the excitement of the fans and players after the final out was made to topple the undefeated Coginchaug girls.

John Cross and I did the public address and scorebook for an amazing Friday night marathon game between Clinton and Madison. Talk about some ‘free baseball’. How about 4 extra innings. I’ve watched a 9 inning Little League game before, but when Clinton’s Michael Callahan hit a solo walk-off homer in the 10th inning to end the game 1-0 and put Clinton into the District 9 quarterfinals, it might have been the end of one of the most amazing little league games I’d ever seen. Good thing he ended it, because I was out of room in the scorebook.

The Coginchaug 9-10 softball team was led through thee entire tournament by the pitching and hitting of Skye Ryer. She was the winning pitcher in 4 of the 5 District 9 wins and the first Section 2 game as well.  I watched five of the girls games, and it seemed like Kerry Turecek got on base every time she batted, and Carina Mancini made some game saving defensive plays at Shortstop in the District final against Madison. We hadn’t won a District 9-10 title in 12 years, so this was no easy task.

I saw less of the 9-10 baseball team, but what I remember most was the hitting they displayed in the District 9 Championship game against Old Saybrook. Evan Faiella hammering a shot out to the fence in left center field; a 3rd inning single by Aiden Lentz and Nick Lipka following with a double, both big off-the-bench hits; and extremely stingy infield defense behind Kolby Pascarelli and Griffin Biro on the mound to shut-down a very bunt-oriented offense from Old Saybrook. Pascarelli had a tougher start pitching in the section opening game against Ellington, but hit a triple to bring his team back from a deficit for a 6-4 win. They would eventually drop games to Newington and Norwich to end their run. This should be a fun group to watch for the next 2 years as well.

The 50-70 state tournament was a tough one in some regards, as our team was overmatched by an all 13 year old Fairfield National team. Eric DeBrum was fantastic on the mound for Coginchaug, shutting down Fairfield for the better part of 5 innings. Devon Goehagen, having caught for just 1 inning all spring season, quickly acclimated to become a solid catcher for DeBrum in Game 1. AJ Alfano led off the 4th with a single, and Danny Dumont, Josh Fazzino, Geoghegan, DeBrum and Dan Munro put together 5 straight hits in a 5 run 4th inning, and suddenly Coginchaug was ahead 8-7 and we had a ballgame. But in the end we had too little pitching and Fairfield had too much hitting to keep it close. The entire team should be proud of their effort, and the chance to have played in the first ever Connecticut State Intermediate Championship.

As for the 12 year old boys, it was a fantastic ride, all the way to coming 1 game short of the New England Regional tournament. Much was already written about it, including an excellent recap by Jimmy Zanor in the Middletown Press from July 30 that any team that gets beyond pool play can relate to. Of course throughout the tournament the team leaned on starter John John Jose to shut down opponents and Cole Niedmann to blast homers, but there were contributions up and down the roster. Connor Rulnick was virtually impossible to get out, getting hits off the best pitchers in the state night-after-night. He had 3 of the 5 hits in Sunday’s elimination game against superstar Harry Azadian of Westport, who has a good chance of pitching a game in Williamsport before it’s all over. Connor struck-out just twice in the postseason. He also managed to go 2-0 with a save in just 3 appearances on the hill. Talk about stepping up when needed. Amazing. Griffin Saks was almost as tough to get out, and about every hit produced an RBI. No team, including Westport, had a better 5-6 tandem in their lineup. James Salemme finished with a 2-2 record in his starts, but that doesn’t tell the story. For some reason we scored about 4-5 runs when James threw, and 10-12 when everyone else pitched. He lost games by a score of 1-0 and led Westport 2-0 after 3-1/2 innings before errors plagued the team. James threw fantastic in both losses, and all of the coaches and players knew it. And of course, AJ Kleczkowski led the team in web-gems, as he hit 3 homers that came at epic moments in the district semis, finals and then in walk-off fashion against Waterford South. Those were not 205 foot hits either. Who knew that was coming. Arguably, TJ Vallone had the most memorable single game effort, batting 4-5 with 2 homers and 2 doubles against South Windsor in the first of the 2 Section final games.

There were some ugly wins, like the Old Saybrook game on a brutally hot Sunday in Guilford, and that awful 8 run top of the 6th against Waterford South that set up the comeback a few minutes later. But most of the baseball was solid. Very good pitching, very solid hitting, very good defense, by starters and subs alike. After the second win against Waterford, all we could talk about was our debut on television that was coming. A week later, up against elimination to Westport, TV coverage was never spoken of, even with the CPTV Sports van right behind the 1B dugout. The game, and that tough Azadian on the mound was the focus of all 13 boys and their coaches.

Had we not won the Section title, after having reached it as 11 year olds, I think there would have been some big disappointment, (and realize we were very close to that happening). But there were not a lot of tears after the elimination loss by Westport. The boys knew they had finally met a better opponent, and every 12 year Little League team in the world will eventually have that feeling. There was nothing to be upset with. You want to get everything you can out of your final Little League season, and this group sure did.

By the way, Coginchaug is the 2nd smallest community in Connecticut (Durham & Middlefield 11,837) to ever win a Section title. The 2000 state champion Lyme/Old Lyme (10,008) being the smallest.

So now it’s time to cheer on Westport. I’m sure Chad Knight and the gang will represent Connecticut well. After beating Vermont 9-2 in the first game of pool play, Westport faces Saco, Maine on Sunday in Bristol. First pitch is at 8 p.m. If you go, and for good and free baseball it is worth the drive, be sure to wear your Royal Coginchaug Blue colors with pride.