The Hall High School and Conard High School baseball teams honored West Hartford first responders in their first of two meetings of the season on Thursday, April 17.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer. Photos by Paul Palmer and Craig Rosenberg

A baseball event meant to honor West Hartford’s first responders turned into an entertaining contest that saw the final out come with the tying run at the plate but Hall holding off the charge by Conard for an 8-5 win.

This is the second season in a row that the Titans have won the game, both while being coached by Nick Sanford, a member of the West Hartford Police Department. “It means a lot to me,” said Sanford. “We play in honor of Sgt. Chris Tyler who died a few years ago of cancer. The kids really appreciate everything about it.”

Hall represents the WHPD wearing blue uniforms with special patches, while Conard is in red with a fire brand across the mid chest. The day began with an honor guard made up of members from both departments bringing the colors onto the field. “From a program standpoint,” said Conard coach Brendan Smith, “ it is about playing beyond your program, to honor both departments. This has become a community event.”

It was Hall getting the scoring going in the first as Tyler Redden led off with a walk, stole second, and came in to score on Calvin Cianflone’s single. He moved to second on the throw home trying to nail Redden at the plate and came around to score on a pair of passed balls.

Conard starter Calvin Borio settled down after that striking out the next 3 Hall batters. Max Hanawalt struck out the first two batters he faced in a 1-2-3 inning for the Titans.

Hall added another run in the second when Burke Reynolds singled, stole second, and advanced to third when the throw went into center field. He came in to score when Lou Sauer beat out a slow roller towards third and pushed across another single run in the third.

Freshman Ryan Cooney got the Red Wolves’ first base hit with a single in the bottom of the third but was left stranded. In the top of the fourth, the Titans scored four times with two outs to take an eight-run lead and again it was Redden getting things going. He reached on an error, moved to second on a fielders choice, and led a teammate across the plate on the 2-RBI single from Tommy Hussey. He would score on Matt Panarella’s double. Panarella would come in on a Hanawalt base hit.

The Wolves responded in their half of the fourth, using a Hall error, a single from Ryan Roche, and a double from Lennox Velez and a pair of walks to plate two. Jaden Kass nearly added two more with a long fly ball to center, but it was tracked down by Reynolds.

“In the middle of the games our offense wakes up,” Smith said. “We have to be able to do that from the first.“

Junior Wyatt Daigle took the mound for Conard in the top of the fifth, and kept the Hall bats quiet. Hanawalt was replaced for Hall in the bottom of the fifth, leaving with just two runs allowed. Conard chipped away at reliever Cameron Levine with a pair of singles by Andrew Weiss and Colin Walsh that were followed by a two-run double from Roche that was ripped down the right field line.

Daigle again got Hall 1-2-3 in the sixth, holding them hitless for two innings. “They threw three good pitchers at us,” said Sanford. “We did a nice job of working the counts early, stealing bases, and we got some timely hits.”

Conard had another promising inning in the bottom of the sixth that gave them one more run, but could have been bigger. With Finn Nelson now pitching for Hall, Kevin Jakubowski lead off with a single and then Cooney drew a walk. Hall catcher Tyler Redden tried to catch Cooney off the base but the throw deflected into foul territory, moving both runners up. Jakubowski would score on a Hall error, before Levine retired the home side.

Hall used a walk and a hit by pitch to put two on with two out inf the top of the seventh. Smith opted to go to Roche to try and get the third out of the inning. What he got was a sparking defensive play at third by Weiss who smothered a hot shot by Cianflone and managed to get up and beat Hall’s runner for the force.

Sanford opted to go with Sauer to close things out in the bottom of the seventh, but after striking out the first two batters he walked the next two batters he faced on a total of nine pitches.

Cooney came to bat as the tying run in the game, but Sauer got him to ground to second for the unassisted put-out to end the game at 8-5.

“No matter what the score is, these games always seem like they are just one-run games,” said Sanford. “Our pitchers battled until the end.”

Smith says he sees his club moving in the right direction, but said they need to come out stronger. “We are close to being a good team,” he said. “It’s like we are in a fight or flight mode and we need to fight before we get hit in the face.”

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