Top seeds Montville and Waterford cruise into ECC baseball tourney final
Norwich — If Montville High School were any hotter at the moment, coach Phil Orbe would forgo infield/outfield before Friday night’s game to make his players stop, drop and roll.
No, really. The top-seeded Indians are awash in an avalanche of 16 straight wins into Friday night’s Eastern Connecticut Conference baseball tournament championship game at Dodd Stadium, following an 8-0 waltz over No. 4 East Lyme in Thursday’s semifinals.
And look who awaits: Time-honored rival and two-time defending tournament champion Waterford. The second-seeded Lancers dispatched No. 3 Norwich Free Academy, 8-0, in the other semifinal.
Quite the storyline: Montville is 2-0 against Waterford this season, lending some fodder to the banter between fans of the two programs and towns. One Montville loyalist earlier this week called the Lancers “aterford” because “there’s no ‘W’ for them against Montville.”
Montville (20-2) is ranked No. 2 in the latest New Haven Register poll. Waterford (20-2) is No. 4. This may not even be the biggest game of the season between programs that have won a combined 12 state titles. They’re on the same side of the bracket in Class M and could meet in the state semifinals in two weeks.
“It’ll all go to waste if it doesn’t come down to the end. I mean 16 games (in a row) means a lot but if we go out in the first round it would mean absolutely nothing,” Montville first baseman T.T. Bowens said. “But if we stay focused, stay calm and have fun, we should have a good ending.”
Bowens nearly hit for the cycle, driving in runs with a single, double and a triple against the Vikings (14-8). Every Montville starter at least one hit, supporting the shutout pitching of Doug Delacruz (4-0).
“We approach every single game the same way,” Bowens said. “Get on them in the first inning, Have good at bats and we should be able to take care of business. … In our eyes, this is nowhere near as big as the state tournament. We’ll approach this like a regular season game and hopefully go into the postseason on fire and ready.”
The Indians played without Orbe, who attended an awards ceremony for his daughter.
Waterford, meanwhile, used RBI singles from Will Sherman and Brent Conderino during a three-run third inning to support the two-hit pitching of Siena-bound right-hander Thomas Sutera (7-0). Sutera pitched into the sixth and struck out five, before yielding to Justin Pandolfe.
Sutera escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first with two strikeouts and was never again threatened.
Chase Speller began the third with a single and eventually scored on Sherman’s single through the left side. Conderino rolled one through the middle two batters later to make it 3-0.
Conderino, who also drew a bases-loaded walk in the sixth, had two hits for the Lancers. Sherman led Waterford with three hits. Justin Keating and Connor Lewis hit two-run singles in the sixth to make it 8-0.
“In the big scheme (Friday night) is just an extra game we get to play,” Waterford coach Art Peluso said. “I’d rather be playing than practicing. But as long as that scoreboard is on and they’re keeping score, we might as well try to win.”
Said Sherman: “It’s pretty big, I guess. I feel like we need to show we can beat them.”
m.dimauro@theday.com
Twitter: @BCgenius
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