Several Canton players spent the summer on the diamond with the Simsbury American Legion baseball team. From left, pitcher Brian Magna, Andrew Crowley, shortstop Nick Quattro and catcher Tyler Plourd.
CANTON, 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. In Zone 1, the teams play only with wooden bats, making scoring runs a premium and putting value on strong pitching.
For just the third time in 25 years, Simsbury’s Post 84 had under 20 wins with a 17-12 record last summer. This year, Post 84 manager Thomas B. Vincent has assembled a diverse group of athletes from Simsbury, Canton, Granby and East Granby. There are seven athletes each from Simsbury and Canton on the squad with two each from Granby and East Granby.
“All of these guys can contribute,” Vincent said. “It will be a new face every
night. We have a lot of flexibility with this roster. We have 18 guys who show
up every night to work, compete and push each other.”
Simsbury (4-2, 2-2 zone) won four of its first six games including a 4-2 win over Bristol and a victory over Terryville. Against Bristol, pitcher Sean
Sinnott (Granby High) struck out five and scattered five hits in a complete game victory. Simsbury scored four runs in the first inning with RBI singles from Brian Magna (Canton) and Alex Mortillaro (Simsbury/N.W. Catholic) RBI fielder’s choices from Alex Wichmann (Granby) and Andrew Crowley (Canton).
Simsbury Post 84
Coach: Thomas B. Vincent, 7th year (141-52)
Last year: 17-12, 16-11 Zone 1 (fourth)
Key players: Brian Magna (Canton), Tyler Plourd (Canton), Nick Quattro (Canton), Andrew Crowley (Canton), Zach Sugar (Canton), Arias Banevicius (Canton), Mike Gibbons, Matt Quintana, Andrew Girard, Kyle Decker, Josh Gowdy, Kyle Richardson, Alex Mortillaro, Sean Sinnott (Granby), Alex Wichmann (Granby), Jason Byers (East Granby), Jacob Fersch (East Granby)
Of note: Decker was an All-State baseball player at Simsbury, hitting .273 with .492 on base percentage. Quintana led Simsbury in wins (6), strikeouts (44), ERA (2.50) and innings pitched while Gowdy hit .352 with 15 RBI this spring. … Magna (cross country) and Crowley (basketball) were All-State athletes at Canton High.
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