Post 96 is preparing for the Legion 19-Under Tournament that starts on Monday.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer

Two-time defending Connecticut State Champion Post 96 West Hartford American Legion Baseball closed out the regular season on Saturday with a split doubleheader – noon game at home vs. Bristol then an 8 p.m. start at Torrington in a makeup game.

Post 96 will enter the post season as the third seed behind No. 1 unbeaten Waterford, and No. 2 South Windsor. This weekend’s games were the 11th and 12th games the team has played in the last 11 days.

Against Bristol they managed just six hits over eight innings and fell 4-3. Catcher Tyler Redden had a pair of those for a lineup that at times fell silent against Bristol’s pitchers.

Max Hanawalt got the start for West Hartford and surrendered a run after giving up a pair of one-out singles to put men on first and third. Jackson Ray took off from first and drew the throw from Redden. Ray then got himself caught in a rundown, allowing Brian Grabowski to score from third.

In the bottom half West Hartford came right back. Calvin Cianflone led off with a walk, before Redden and Calvin Borio hit back-to-back singles to load the bases. Myles Fournier then hit into a 6-4-3 double play that allowed Cianflone to score to tie things up.

In the home half of the third, Post 96 had another chance to score when Redden collected his second hit and Borio walked. Fournier delivered an RBI single and it was 2-1 with men on the corners. Fournier was then thrown out trying to steal second and the inning ended on a 1-3 comebacker.

“We left too many runners in scoring position early on,” said West Hartford coach Sean McCann. “We let them (Bristol) believe they could hang with us and they did.”

With one out in the fifth, Cianflone ripped a double and that was the end of the day for starter Gavin Colvin of Bristol. Redden then ripped a line drive to right field that Matt Levesque made a great diving catch on. Cianflone was on the move on the play and was easily doubled up at second to end the inning.

In the top of the sixth, it was Bristol taking the lead they would hold until the last of the seventh.

Grabowski led off with a single and was running on the pitch to Ray. He stroked a single and Grabowski was at third. One play later it was Levesque hitting the single and scoring Grabowski to tie things at 2. Ray would score later in the inning on a two-out single by Gavin Cooke off reliever Kyle Rueckert.

Burke Reynolds would come on to get the final out and go have an easy seventh inning to keep his team in the game. “He was on the zone all day for us,” said McCann of Reynolds’ pitching performance.

Coming up for what could be their last at bats, West Hartford relied on fundamentals to push across the tying run and send things into extra innings.

Ben White led off with a walk and then stole second. Reynolds then laid down a perfect sac bunt in front of the plate advancing the runner to third with one out. Nick Keegan paid it all off with a sac fly to center that saw White bet the throw home on and the game was tied at 3.

The visitors would get the go ahead run on a two out double from Cooke. Levesque led the inning off with a single, and went to second on a sacrifice. After a pop-out to Fournier at short, Reynolds had Cooke in a 2-2 count and looked to have caught him looking at strike three. But the home plate umpire called it ball three, and on the next pitch Cooke delivered the double into the left-center gap.

In the bottom of the eighth, Post 96 hit the ball hard; unfortunately for them Cooke was going to come up big not once but twice to save the win. The first came when Cianflone laced a ball to right center and Cooke managed to track it down on the run. Redden would follow and ripped what looked like a sure extra base hit into the left-center gap. But Cooke was on his horse again and tracked it down on a full extension in stride.

With two outs, West Hartford worked a pair of walks but Kaiyo Sharkey grounded out short to second on the force to end the game at 4-3.

In the nightcap game, West Hartford shut out Torrington 10-0, ending the regular season with a 16-4 record.

The focus now is on the State Tournament and McCann said he has no big concerns heading into it on Monday.“We had some alums come by today and talked with the players about what to expect.” The team returned just five players from the one that advanced to the Northeast Regionals final game a year ago.

“At the start of the year I didn’t know what to expect,”  said McCann of his season. “I knew we had talent and now I know that they are hungry to win.”

Game notes:

• Post 96 will open the post season at home at Conard High School on Monday where as of now they will host 14th-seed Simsbury at 5:30 p.m. A win in that game and they would play again Tuesday at home against the winner of the Bristol-Milford game on Monday.
• A win on Tuesday would move them into the Super 8 in Middletown. The goal is to get two wins to move on, and even if they lose one of the two games, they would not be eliminated but would have to win out in the opening round to advance to the Super 8 and then play in South Windsor,
• If they win their first two games, they will go to Middletown as the third seed. If they come out of the opening round with a single loss, but advance, they would be the fifth seed.
• The Super 8 opening round starts next Saturday.

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