Trumbull Defeats Fairfield 19U, Wins FCBL Championship

Trumbull won the 2020 Fairfield County Baseball League (FCBL) Championship on Wednesday night as they defeated Fairfield 8-0 at Trumbull High School. 

The start of the game was a pitcher's duel as Trumbull's Ryan Caroll and Fairfield's Phil Hogan traded zero's through the first three innings, with an infield single for Trumbull the only hit to that point. 

Trumbull would break through in the fourth. Brandon Csizmadia led off with a walk and stole second. The next batter, Chris Briganti drove in Csizmadia with a single to left field. Two batters later, after Briganti moved to second base on a wild pitch, he came in to score on a double to right by Ryan Gomes.

Caroll, who would be named championship game MVP, held Fairfield without a hit through the first four innings. Fairfield's first, and only hit of the game, was a fifth inning two-out single to center field by Charlie Mount. 

Trumbull broke the game open in the fifth. Despite getting only one hit in the inning, they capitalized on three Fairfield errors, two walks and a hit batter to score six runs against three Fairfield pitchers. 

After a lead off walk, Hogan came out in favor of Alex Wiggetman. Justin Delaney hit a ground ball to shortstop but the thrown was dropped at second and runners were at first and second with nobody out. Matt Massaro then came up and laid down a sacrifice bunt but the throw was thrown down the first field line, allowing both runners to score and Massaro to end up all the way at third. That gave Trumbull a 4-0 lead. 

Massaro would come in to score during the next at bat on a balk by Wiggetman. Two batters later, with runners on second and third, a wild pitch bounced to the right of Fairfield catcher Jack Hernandez allowing one run to score. Hernandez's throw to pitcher Anthony Espinoza covering home plate was high and got away, allowing the second runner to score. 

The scoring would be capped later in the inning as Dan Massaro, who had walked earlier in the inning, came in to score on a wild pitch. 

Trumbull got strong pitching from Caroll (5IP, 1 hit, 1 walk), Bryan Kraus (1IP, no hits, only runner reached on error) and Dan Massaro (one perfect inning). 

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It was a pleasure to follow and informally cover Fairfield Legion this summer. I look forward to more in the future! Thank you to coaches Sars Ford (also the GM of Fairfield Legion), Lance Kreizer, Chris Bugyi, Will Mitola and Connor Bennett for your help in allowing me to cover your teams. To the families and players, it was enjoyable to chat with you, and I hope you enjoyed the coverage. You athletes and families deserve it. 

Fairfield 19U Defeats Ridgefield in FCBL Semifinal

Joey Sangiuolo delivers a pitch to Johnny Briody 

Fairfield 19U defeated Trumbull 5-1 in the Fairfield County Baseball League Semifinals. They advance to the championship where they play Trumbull. They will need to beat Trumbull on Wednesday and Thursday to win the championship, while Trumbull will only need to win once. 

Ridgefield got on the board in the top of the first. Alex Hanna led off with an infield single to shortstop. He stole second and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Jason Hartnett. The next batter, Johnny Briody drove a ball deep enough to right field for the sacrifice fly and Ridgefield led 1-0.  

Fairfield came right back in the bottom half of the frame. One-out walks to Jack Pierce and Christian Homa put two runners on for Blake Benway. Benway drove the full-count pitch to deep left-center field for the two-run double to give Fairfield the lead. 

Two batters later, Fairfield would add another run as Anthony Espinoza doubled over the center fielders head to bring in Benway. 

After some struggles in the first inning, Fairfield pitcher Joey Sangiuolo settled down. He allowed just the one run on four his, while striking out four and walking one in a complete game.

Between his sidearm delivery and his mix of a fastball and multiple off-speed pitches, Sangiuolo was able to keep the Ridgefield hitters off balance all game long. 

Fairfield would tack on in the sixth. Brady Pomer, Espinoza and Charlie Mount all singled to load the bases with one out. The next batter, Sam Weinstein laced a single to center-field to bring in Pomer and re-load the bases. 

Jack Hernandez followed that up with a perfectly executed safety-squeeze sacrifice bunt to bring in Espinoza and cap the scoring. 

Fairfield 19U Comes From Behind To Walk-Off Greenwich In FCBL Playoffs

Fairfield 19U baseball came from behind to defeat the Greenwich Cannons in walk-off fashion 7-6 on Sunday morning at Kiwanis Field. The win moves Fairfield into the semifinal of the Fairfield County Baseball League Playoffs. 

Fairfield won the game in the bottom of the seventh on a two-out bases-loaded error of the bat of Joey D'Elia to shortstop, as the ball could not be fielded cleanly. 

Earlier in the inning, Fairfield tied the game on on a one-out single to right by Sam Weinstein. 

 

That ending was just a small part of a major comeback for Fairfield as Greenwich got out to a strong start. 

Fairfield starter Chris Domizio was strong through the first two innings, but ran in to some trouble in the third. Harrision Feinberg doubled to left field with one out. He moved to third on a wild pitch and then Hunter Gruenstrass,grounded out to third to bring in Feinberg and get the Cannon's on the board. 

Ben Nash then doubled and Ian Colalucci walked before Jack Griffin singled to left to bring in Nash. Cage Lasley then doubled home Colalucci and Griffin to give Greenwich a 4-0 lead. That would be the end of the day for Domizio. 

Josh Wittenberger would come on a walk the next two batters to load the bases. He then got a ground ball to first off the bat of Chris Genero but the throw from Blake Benway was dropped and that allowed Genero to reach and Lasley to come in and score. 

Fairfield would get on the board bottom half of the inning. D'Elia singled with one out and stole second. The next batter, Christian Homa doubled to left to bring in D'Elia and get Fairfield on the board. 

Greenwich got that run back in the fourth. Gruenstrass singled to lead off the inning and moved to third on two wild pitches.Ben Nash then doubled to deep right field to bring home Gruenstrass and increase the Cannons lead to 6-1. 

Fairfield got another run back in the fourth. Benway led off with a triple to right field. The next batter, Jack Varcoe then singled to right to bring in Benway and cut the deficit to 6-2. 

An inning later, Fairfield clawed even further back into the game. D'Elia reached on an error and Homa singled to put two on with two outs. The runners moved to second and third on a wild pitch and Blake Benway came to the plate. Benway would strike out swinging but reached first base on a wild pitch that also allowed D'Elia to score and Homa to go to third. 

A walk to Jack Varcoe loaded the bases before a walk to Brady Pomer brought in Homa to cut the deficit to 6-4. Charlie Mount then came up with a bases-loaded walk of his own to cut the score to 6-5. 

Fairfield still trailed 6-5 heading to the bottom of the seventh. Benway reached on an error and Varcoe singled. Pomer then hit into a fielder's choice to put runners on first and second with one out. Mount then hit a slow roller to second base that could not be fielded cleanly to load the bases. That set the stage for Weinstein's game tying hit with one out. After a strikeout, D'Elia came up and put the ball in play and was able to help Fairfield come up with the win. 

Fairfield advances to the FCBL semifinals where they will host Ridgefield on Monday at 5:30 at Kiwanis Field. 

Fairfield 19U Defeats Westport In Pitcher's Duel To Advance In Playoffs

Fairfield 19U defeated Westport 1-0 on Saturday morning at Kiwanis Field to advance in the losers bracket of the Fairfield County Baseball Playoffs. 

It was a pitcher's duel between Fairfield's CJ Montiero and Westport's Ty Pauley. 

Both pitchers threw up zero's for the first five innings. Westport had two men on in the second and fourth innings but could not push any runs across. For Fairfield, they had runners on in the first two innings but were then held without a base runner for innings three through five. . 

Fairfield's run came in the bottom of the sixth. Jay Joliet led off with a single to center field. After Joey D'Elia sacrificed, Joliet to second base, Christian Homa came up to the plate. The left-handed hitting Homa lined the first pitch he saw into left-center field and Joliet was able to come in and score. 

Westport threatened to tie the game and take the lead in the top half of the seventh. With the bases loaded and one out, Brian Rabacs lined an 0-1 pitch down the third base line that Joliet snagged on a line for the second out. Joliet dove to third to try to double the runner off but Kevin Rabacs, who had singled to lead off the inning, was able to scamper back before Joliet's tag. 

Montiero was able to finish off the win by enduing a fielders choice to shortstop. 

In addition to the great defensive play from Joliet, Fairfield got some great defense from D'Elia and Montiero. 

In the fifth, Brian Rabacs hit a slow roller between the pitcher's mound and first base. Montiero pounced off the mound and picked up the ball with his glove and in one motion, flipped it over the Blake Benway at first for the out. In the sixth, D'Elia made a great catch going back on a ball in center field. 

Fairfield will host Greenwich on Sunday at 10am at Kiwanis. 

Stratford Defeats Fairfield 19U in Extras in First Round Of Playoffs

Anthony Espinoza pitches during extra innings on Thursday

Stratford defeated Fairfield 19U 4-2 in  13 innings in the first round of the double-elimination Fairfield County Baseball League Playoffs. The game started on Wednesday and finished on Thursday due to darkness at Kiwanis Field in Fairfield on Wednesday. 

Stratford put up a run in the first inning, before Fairfield came back to take the lead in the third. 

In the third, Anthony Espinoza led off with a double. Jack Varcoe then laid down a bunt and the third baseman threw the ball down the right field line, allowing Espinoza to score and Varcoe ended up at second. 

Two batters later, after a past ball put Varcoe at third, he came in to score on a ground-out to shortstop by Jack Hernandez as Fairfield led 2-1. 

Stratford came back to put up a run in the third to tie the game at 2. 

The game would be a pitchers duel and remain tied inning after inning. After the ninth inning on Wednesday, the umpires said one more inning and if nobody scored, the game would be suspended. Well, the game remain tied at two and would have to be picked up on Wednesday. 

The first two innings of the resumption (the 11th and 12th innings) were scoreless for both sides, with Stratford getting the lone base runner, Stratford would take the lead in the top of the 13th. Three singles and a wild pitch led to two Stratford runs to take the lead and eventually win the game. 

Fairfield got strong pitching from the trio of Joey Sanguiolo, CJ Montiero and Anthony Espinoza, including three shutout innings of relief from Montiero, who struck out five. 

Fairfield will play Wilton, who fell to Ridgefield on Wednesday, on Friday at 5:30 at Kiwanis Field in an elimination game. 

Some photos from the storm damage at Kiwanis Field. Full reporting here! 

Hogan Leads Fairfield 19U Past Greenwich

Fairfield and Greenwich in action on Saturday morning at GHS. 

Phil Hogan's complete game two-hitter led Fairfield 19U past the Greenwich Cannon's 2-0 on Saturday morning at Greenwich High School. 

Fairfield got on the board in the top of the first against Greenwich starter Zach Karson. Jack Pierce walked and stole second base. Two batters later, Joey D'Elia doubled to to the wall in right field to plate Pierce and give Fairfield a 1-0 lead. 

Fairfield added another in the third inning against Cannon's reliever Alex Roath. Christian Homa led off with a single. Pierce then sacrificed Homa to second base. Two batters later, with runners on second and third, Blake Benway singled though the left side of the infield to plate Homa. 

Greenwich had their best chance to break through against Hogan in the fourth as they got a runner to second with one our and had runners at first and second and two outs but could not plate a run. 

Hogan walked three and struck out five in addition to allowed just the two hits. One base-runner reached on an error.  

The Cannon's pitching was very good also. Four Greenwich pitchers, Karson, Roath, Jake Mondschein and Zack Alza allowed just the two runs of six hits. 

Fairfield will now gear up for the playoffs next week, while Greenwich will have a final regular season game on Sunday at Trumbull at 10am. 

The playoff brackets for both the 19U and 17U tournaments can be found at greenwichcannons.com 

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Rob Adams and I broadcasted the game on Rob's channel, Robcasting Radio. Thanks to Rob for having me along for the broadcast. Fun to get out there and help Rob out and provide some (very little) color commentary, especially with Fairfield being involved. 

We had a few technical issues, but as always, Rob is able to find a way to get the broadcast done, one way or another. He knows how to fix issues and will try multiple ways to fix them, if need be. To be clear, neither issue was Rob, or anyone's, fault. We (mostly Rob) worked though them to produce the best broadcast possible. 

Here's the broadcast with Rob and I on the call. Due to the technical difficulties, Rob recapped the lost portion of the game. 

 

Stay turned for Rob's broadcast schedule on his Twitter or the Robcasting Radio Twitter.