High School Baseball Is Back

The Falcons warm up prior to the game against New Canaan

After the 2020 season was cancelled, high school baseball, and all spring sports, were back this week in Connecticut. 

It's interesting times for everyone, dealing with COVID protocols and quarantines, and the unknown due to the fact that there wasn't a season last year. 

For the Ludlowe baseball team, they got our season going on Tuesday against New Canaan after getting postponed against Greenwich on Saturday and New Canaan on Monday. 

It was 682 days between the 2019 season ending loss against Southington until Ludlowe played another game that counted. 

In terms of the game, the Falcons picked up a 9-8 win on a walk-off by catcher Christian Smith in the bottom of the seventh. 

Ludlowe took an early 3-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI single by Smith and a two-run triple by Andrew Fortunato. 

New Canaan cut into the lead with a two-run triple to center field in the fourth by Cameron Wheeler. 

Ludlowe extended their lead in the bottom half of the inning as they scored five times. Matt Vivona led off with a hustle double to right field and Noah Schaper walked. 

Three batters later with the bases now loaded, Fortunato singled to right to bring home two runs. Charlie Mulhall followed that up with an RBI single to put the Falcons up 7-2. The scoring for the inning when Mike Innaimo delivered a sacrifice fly to plate Mulhall. 

New Canaan scored four more times in the fifth as they batted around despite only getting three hits in the inning. 

The Rams would tie the game in the top half of the seventh. A single and an error put two one with one out before Jack O'Donnell came up with an RBI double to cut the deficit to 8-7 and put two runners in scoring position. Andrew Rashad's sacrifice fly would tie the game at eight. 

In the bottom half of the seventh, Rhys Davies led off with a single to center field. Matt Vivona laid down a bunt and the ball was thrown into center field to put two on and none out. Two batters later, Longo would walk to load the bases and put the winning run 90 feet away. Smith then came out and drove a 1-1 pitch deep enough to right field to allow Davies to come in and score. 

Ludlowe improves to 1-0 on the early season and will travel to Greenwich to take on the Cardinals on Wednesday at 4pm. 

We'll see if I continue to write these recaps. The lack of media coverage, especially newspaper coverage, around the league for all sports is disappointing and I want to give the student-athletes some coverage.