The Greenwich senior legion baseball team is getting into a groove, and that’s not a good thing for the Cannons’ opposition.
On Tuesday, the Cannons hosted Trumbull in the regular season finale and won its fourth game in a row with a 2-1 victory at Havermeyer Field.
“Today was huge,” Billy O’Malley said. “We went through a lot of adversity this year and this team keeps on battling. To be able to come out here today and play for the second seed in the Zone is huge. It certainly helps out standing in States. We came out today and put up a run in the first inning and that was huge. We played a lot of small ball and defense and pitching was strong again for us.”
Greenwich got the ball rolling in the first inning. Alex Loparco led off with a single. With one out, Kevin Woodring moved Loparco over to third on a single. Up stepped Mike Genaro, who launched a sacrifice fly that easily plated Loparco for the 1-0 lead.
The Cannons fired off another run in the bottom of the third inning. Billy O’Malley started the inning by belting a double. After Woodring drew a walk, Genaro hit the sacrifice bunt that moved both runners over a base. Colin Kelly came up next and hit the sacrifice fly that plated O’Malley and gave Greenwich its last run of the game.
Hunter Frantz smacked a single that moved Woodring over to third, but he was unable to reach the plate as Trumbull retired the side to end the threat.
Once again Greenwich was threatening to score more runs in the fifth inning. With two outs, Hunter Frantz connected on a single and moved to third when JT Hintzen belted a booming double. Yet again, Trumbull was able to end the threat and kept the score a one-run deficit.
On the mound, Genaro was stellar, just like he’s been throughout the senior legion season, and held Trumbull to one run and pitched a complete game.
“I felt good out there,” Genaro said. “I knew that with this field, if I could get a lot of ground balls it would help a lot. The grass here is usually very thick. I figured to keep the ball down and let my fielders do their work. And they did.”
“You can’t say enough about the way Mike pitches,” O’Malley said. “To come out today, not give up an earned run and help give us the win was unbelievable.”
With the victory, Greenwich won its fourth game in a row and moved to 19-8 on the regular season.
“Today’s win was extremely important,” O’Malley said. “Obviously for the state situation because we only have to play one play-in game to get to a series. Trumbull was also the team that knocked us out of States last year and we have had a big rivalry with them for the past couple of years now. We know Trumbull is a great team, so this gives us a lot of confidence going into States.”
The victory closed the book on another successful regular season, but also jumped Greenwich past Trumbull in the standing to finish second overall in Zone IV. The playoffs start Sunday for Greenwich.
“The number two seed was very important for us,” Genaro said. “It gives us a bye and we also get to play our only play-in game at our home field. We get to save our pitching as much as possible. That’s all huge. It was a good game today and a huge win for us to beat Trumbull.”
A few short days ago, it appeared that the Cannons would finish the regular season third in Zone IV. However Greenwich went on a tear this past weekend in what felt like a must-win atmosphere, going went 3-0 and beating Fairfield 6-1 and 4-2 on Saturday and again on Sunday 9-4.
On the other side of the coin, Trumbull was stuck in a three-game losing streak, falling to Stamford, the Zone 4 champions, all three games over the weekend.
During Monday’s finale, the Cannons found themselves in a great position. A win and Greenwich takes second in the zone, but more importantly gives them an extra day of rest and needing only one game, at home on Sunday, to advance to the state tourney.
To read much more on the team gearing up for the state tournament run, check out Friday’s Greenwich Sentinel.
