AVON, June 13 — The Major League Baseball season may be a marathon with 162 games over a six-month period but in Connecticut, the American Legion campaign is a sprint with 25-to-30 games in about a month.
For Avon’s American Legion program, the season is already over a week old and Post 201 have eyes on winning at least 15 Zone 1 games and earning a berth in the Connecticut state tournament.
It’s not easy in Zone 1 with established programs such as Simsbury, Bristol and Southington. Rising stars Avon, Unionville and Torrington have been consistently stronger over the past few years while Burlington, Wolcott, Terryville and Winsted are looking to take that next step and earn a tournament bid. In Zone 1, the teams play only with wooden bats, making scoring runs a premium and putting value on strong pitching.
Avon finished second in Zone 1 a year ago in its sophomore season. Post 201 wants to contend for a zone title but securing a state tournament berth is the primary goal. Avon has plenty of pitchers who logged innings at Avon High and Avon Old Farms. Sean Lanahan (Babson), Chris Frask (Purdue) played in college.
“We’re not deep but we have a lot of guys who can pitch,” Avon manager Brian Doyle said. Post 201 is strong up the middle with centerfielder Liam O’Connor, second baseman Connor Doyle and catcher Cody Doyle.
Avon began the season with a 3-2 start, 3-1 in Zone 1. Tyler D’Onofrio had a RBI single in the bottom of the seventh to lift Avon to a 5-4 win over Torrington.
Avon erased a 4-1 deficit in the sixth with three runs, including a two-RBI single from Rick Wise and an RBI single from Lanahan.
Avon erased a 2-0 deficit and scored the winning run on a suicide squeeze to outlast Winsted, 3-2. Lanahan had a double in the victory.
Avon Post 201
Coach: Brian Doyle, 3rd year (40-21), 5th year overall (64-53)
Last year: 21-9, 19-8 Zone 1 (second).
Key players: Michael Castellani, Tyler D’Onofrio, Cody Doyle, Connor Doyle, Chris Frask, Matt Jadovich, Sean Lanahan, Connor Larson, Andrew Livingstone, Brandon Moss, George Nurisso, Liam O’Connor, Jared Sheiker, Brendan Telfer, Ryan Wise, Greg Giamaus
Schedule: June – 22 UNIONVILLE: 24 @Simsbury; 25 SOUTHINGTON; 26 @Burlington (2), 1 p.m.; 29 @Torrington
July – 1 @Bristol; 3 WOLCOTT (2), 1 p.m.; 5 TERRYVILLE; 6 @Southington, 6:45 p.m.; 7 WINSTED; 10 @Unionville (2), 5 p.m.; 12 SIMSBURY; 13 @Bristol; 15: TORRINGTON
Home games begin at 5:45 p.m. at Avon Old Farms
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