Manager Brian Doyle and the Avon American Legion baseball team have a key Zone 1 game with Simsbury on Thursday night at 5:30 p.m. at Memorial Field.
Now, that a few days of rain has ceased, the summer baseball season picks up speed as the regular season moves toward its conclusion.
In Little League play, Canton’s 9-10 baseball All-Star team is playing in the Division II state tournament – a three-team, double-elimination affair for the right to play for the Section I championship.
Canton (6-1) won its first-ever state tournament game Wednesday, beating Farmington, 10-8. Canton will face Beacon Falls (District 3 champion) tonight at Peter Foley Little League in Naugatuck beginning at 7 p.m. The winner of tonight’s game goes Saturday’s Division II title game.
It’s just the fourth Little League baseball team from Canton to ever win a District 6 championship. The Canton/Granby junior division (ages 13-14) won the D6 title a year ago and Canton’s Major Division baseball teams (ages 11-12) won the District 6 crowns in 1988 and 1977.
AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL: Simsbury and Avon are battling for the Zone 1 championship as the regular season comes to end this week. Simsbury, which features six players from Canton, currently holds a slim lead over defending Zone 1 champion Avon.
Simsbury (16-4) has four Zone 1 games remaining while Avon (17-5) has just two. Post 84 swept a pair from Avon on Sunday to take command of the Zone 1 race.
Simsbury hosts Avon Thursday night at 5:30 p.m. at Memorial Field and then will host Wolcott immediately following at 7:30 p.m. Post 84 is at Southington on Friday and closes out the regular season with a game at Unionville.
Avon needs to win Thursday night to have a realistic chance to win the Zone 1 title. Post 201 closes out its regular season by hosting Winsted on Friday. If Simsbury wins, Post 84 would have to lose its remaining three games to let the title slip away. One win against either Wolcott, Unionville or Southington would give Simsbury the Zone 1 title.
If Avon and Simsbury finshed tied for first place in Zone 1, Simsbury will win the tiebreaker by winning two of the three games between the two teams.
Both teams have qualified for the state tournament but the winner of Zone 1 gets an automatic bye into the double elimination portion of the state tournament.
The single-elimination portion of the tournament begins on Sunday, July 20 with the teams that finish second, third, fourth and fifth from Zone 1, 6, 7, and 8 playing in the Northern Division sectional tournament.
Four survivors who win their first two games will play the four Zone 1, 6, 7 and 8 champions in a best 2-of-3 series on July 23-24 to determine who advances to the Northern Division regional tournament in Bristol on July 26-30. The winner of the Northern Division tournament plays the Southern Division winner in a best-of-3 series to determine the state championship.
The 2014 Northeast Regional is being hosted this summer in Middletown at Palmer Field.
PLAYOFFS: Terryville (12-11) clinched the fifth and final playoff spot in Zone 1 with a 6-0 win over Unionville on Wednesday night and Wolcott’s 11-0 loss to Simsbury. Southington (15-8) and Bristol (12-10) have also qualified from Zone 1 along with Avon and Simsbury.
SOFTBALL: Canton closes out the regular season of the Connecticut Women’s Softball League by hosting West Hartford on Sunday at Canton High. Canton is currently second in the league with a 7-3 record behind the CT Tides (8-1) from southern Connecticut. The season-ending tournament is July 27 at a site to be announced.
TRI-STATE LEAGUE BASEBALL: The Canton Crushers (1-14) play their final home game of their first Tri-State campaign on Sunday at Bowdoin Field. The Crushers will host first place Naugatuck Dogs (10-2) beginning at 5 p.m.
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