New London Legion falls 1-0 in eight innings at state tourney
South Windsor — The New London American Legion team learned Sunday what Avon learned a day earlier — Rocky Hill-Cromwell-Portland isn’t fazed by extra innings.
Pinch hitter Noah Budzik hit a walkoff single with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning to give RCP a 1-0 win in the Northern Division Super Regionals at Rotary Field.
RCP scored twice in the bottom of the eighth to beat Avon on Saturday, 3-2. It is the two-time defending Connecticut and Northeast Regional champion.
“Maybe they still think these are nine inning games,” RCP coach T.J. Grande quipped.
“Can’t last forever,” New London coach Tom Vivirito joked when asked about RCP’s late-inning mojo.
New London (23-8) will try to stave off elimination when it returns to Rotary Field on Monday to play Tolland. New London beat the latter on Saturday, 6-2.
“It’s tough (the loss), but we’ve been through it before,” Vivirito said. “I think my kids will be ready to play. We proved we could play with that team. We beat Tolland before. We’ll have to beat them again. Our pitching is lining up pretty good.”
New London gave RCP one too many chances. First, It got out of a bases loaded jam with two outs in the bottom of the third inning.
RCP loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the seventh. New London remarkably escaped thanks to reliever Hunter Nadeau.
Nadeau got Cory Baldwin, the first batter he faced, to line out to him. He threw over to first base for a double play.
Nadeau got Cole Ogorzalek to ground out to end the inning.
“We dodged a few bullets, didn’t we?,” Vivirito said.
New London only allowed four hits, but was undone by walks.
Austin White walked to lead of the RCP eighth and was sacrificed to second by Trevor Whalen.
Kevin Larkin was intentionally walked to set up the double play. Roland Thivierge walked to load the bases.
Nadeau struck out Leo Thomas for the second out. Budzik followed with his game-winning single.
“His (older) brother (Christian) was clutch (in previous seasons),” Grande said. “They’re not going to get rattled in that situation. We knew he could hit.”
Jeremy Santos did all could to keep New London in the game as he gave up three hits over six innings.
“My guy went up-and-above expectations,” Vivirito said. “He’s like my fifth or sixth guy. My starter, my ace (Quantique White) went 10 innings (on July 20). He couldn’t come back today. Legally (by pitch count), he could come back, but he wasn’t ready to go. So Jeremy stepped in and did a heck of a job. … That was a great effort by him.”
New London was undone by two bad breaks in the top of the sixth. Pinch hitter Aaron Beeney hit a leadoff single and went to second on an error.
Pinch runner Michael Williams took off on Cooper Robinson’s fielder’s choice, but the ball was grounded to close to him and forced him to retreat to second base. He was tagged out.
Justin Marceau singled with two outs, and Pieter Khoury lined a single into left field
Robinson was sent home, but left fielder Thivierge threw him out at the plate.
“You’ve got to take chances in a scoreless ball game,” Vivirito said. “To be honest with you, I thought he was in there.”
n.griffen@theday.com
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