Luke Bauer rounds third on his way to scoring the first Haddam-Killingworth run in the fourth inning on Wednesday vs. Valley Regional. Derek Turner/GameTimeCT
Haddam-Killingworth starter Owen Marica throws in the first inning of the Cougars 4-2 win over Valley Regional on Wednesday. Derek Turner/GameTimeCT
HIGGANUM >> Coming into this season, long-time Haddam-Killingworth baseball coach Mark Brookes didn’t know what he had for a team. Eight games in, he’s starting to figure out it’s a good one.
After beating Valley Regional on Wednesday 4-2, the Cougars are 8-0 and off to their best start since 2010 when they went 19-1 in the regular season before losing in the Class M semifinals.
“We were 10-10 last year,” Brookes said. “And just not very good to be honest. I played a lot of young kids who are now sophomores and juniors. They worked hard in the off-season, took hitting lessons and pitching lessons, didn’t really put it down, just kept working at it. It’s starting to pay off for them.”
A couple of the early wins for H-K look good, like a 3-0 victory over Cromwell and an 8-1 win vs. Old Lyme. But Valley Regional posed the toughest test for the Cougars yet and they were able to put it all together to get the magic eighth win which qualifies them for the state tournament.
The Cougars got a solid pitching performance from sophomore Owen Marica. He went six-plus innings while allowing two runs on six hits, one walk and one hit batter. He struck out three before giving way to senior Gavin Figurelli who got the final three outs of the game to pick up the save.
“I think Owen settled down,” Brookes said. “I think his first inning was kind of rough, he gave up a hit down the line. But after that — although they got some solid ground balls — he kept everything down and did a nice job.”
Trevor Mann turns a first inning double-play for Haddam-Killingworth. Derek Turner/GameTimeCT
Haddam-Killingworth also made all the plays it needed to make in the field, right down to the final ground ball that took a bad hop in front of Trevor Mann at shortstop who was able to corral the bouncing ball and fire over to first to finalize the win while stranding the tying run on base.
“It came up quick on him,” Brookes said. “It’s the luck of the bounce. Other times you’ll see a ball like that go through. My pitcher Figurelli came in and I thought threw extremely well. With the defense behind him, good things happen.”
And H-K can hit.
Valley Regional starter Arik Sypher was strong in the early innings. He struck out five of the first eight batters he faced, but ran into some trouble starting in the fourth.
“[Sypher] did lose his command a little there,” Valley Regional coach Gary Marineau said. “But we just talked about it over there. They’re an aggressive team. Any time they hit the ball they run out of the box hard. If you notice, anytime they hit the ball hard anywhere they were on second base.”
And that exactly what happened in the fourth.
Tyler Popp doubled with one out and Ben Alonso did the same to tie the game at one.
“A little bobble in the outfield and they were there,” Marineau said. “That’s a well-coached team that played the game hard.”
Ben Alonzo hits a double to left field to drive in the first H-K run of the game tying the score at 1-1. Derek Turner/GameTimeCT
Valley responded in the top of the fifth, but not without some controversy.
Brett Camilleri led off with an infield single and Michael Martorelli was hit by a pitch. Ryan Kelly sacrificed them over a base, but when Matt Robida grounded out to shortstop, Martorelli broke for third late and was thrown out across the diamond for a 6-3-5 inning ending double-play.
Marineau argued that both runners were safe, but didn’t get anywhere with the umpires and the Warriors held a 2-1 lead as Camilleri scored before the final out of the inning was recorded.
H-K really got to Sypher in the fifth. It scored three runs on two hits, a walk and and an error to chase him from the game.
“I just anticipated going at [Valley Regional] as hard as we could,” Brookes said. “I knew their pitching was extremely good and I’m just finding out that we’ve got some kids that can hit, field and pitch, so I’m happy.”
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