White pitches two-hitter as New London Legion beats Tolland
South Windsor — Quantique White had to pitch in a marathon the last time he threw for the New London American Legion team.
White sprinted through the Tolland lineup on Monday, and the latter couldn’t keep up with him. White pitched a two-hitter with seven strikeouts in a 4-0 win that kept New London alive in the Northern Division Super Regionals at Rotary Field.
White threw 10 innings and 127 pitches in last Wednesday’s 6-4 win over Niantic.
“(Took) good care of it, you know,” White chuckled when talking about taking care of his arm after such a long outing. “Got some special gel to put on it, the shoulders.”
White was efficient Monday night as he needed just 90 pitches to get through Tolland. The right-hander, who’ll be a sophomore at Southern Connecticut State this fall, threw in the mid-80s. He allowed only four baserunners, one via walk and the other on a hit batsman.
“He was the Zone (6) Pitcher of the Year,” New London coach Tom Vivirito said. “He’s been our everything. He hasn’t lost a game. He throws strikes. He has good command of all his pitches. He gets ahead of the count. That’s really the name of the game.
“We play really good defense behind him. He feels confident out there because he knows that the guys can play behind him.”
New London (23-8) earned itself a rematch against two-time defending Connecticut and Northeast Region champion Rocky Hill-Cromwell-Portland in Tuesday’s championship round at the same site (6:30 p.m.)
RCP beat New London on Sunday in eight innings, 1-0. New London has to beat RCP twice in order to win the division.
It was the second time in three days that New London beat Tolland. It won 6-2 on Saturday.
New London attacked Tolland from the first pitch as Cooper Robinson, Trevor Bolduc and Jeremy Santos hit three successive singles to load the bases with no outs.
Tolland’s Nick Paasch stopped New London there as he retired the next three batters, the last two by strikeout.
Good fortune came New London’s way when Robinson and Bolduc reached on back-to-back errors to start the third inning.
Santos tried to sacrifice the runners over. He ended up reaching safely on Tolland's third straight error, scoring Robinson.
Justin Marceau followed with an RBI single to give New London a 2-0 lead.
“We’ve had trouble scoring runs,” Vivirito said. “I think we breathed a sigh of relief after we got at least one (run).
“(A) two-run lead with ‘Tique on the mound, we felt pretty good.”
White didn’t need the second run. He gave up a one-out single to Brandon Kallenbach in the third inning and retired the next eight batters.
“Everything (was working),” White said. “I was throwing mostly fastball, then slider. My curveball was working, too. I got most of them with it on the dirt pitches.”
Brett Perry singled with one out in the New London fourth and Robinson walked.
Santos hit a two out, two-run triple to deep centerfield to push New London ahead, 4-0.
“(We) finally got a big hit because we’ve had a lot of guys come up with men in scoring position and just couldn’t get (a hit),” Vivirito said.
Thomas Slane singled with two outs in the Tolland seventh.
White struck out Clayton Keane with a slider to end the game.
“We were in this game last year and lost,” Vivirito said. “We’ve gone one step beyond it now. We’re in the (final) four. We want more.”
n.griffen@theday.com
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