Avon Legion tops Unionville for 18th win in rain-shortened contest

Avon’s Justin Olson had a double at the plate and allowed just one hit on the mound in Avon’s win over Unionville Thursday night.

AVON, July 14 – The Avon American Legion baseball concluded their regular season campaign with a 2-0 rain shortened victory over Unionville Thursday night in Zone 1 play at Buckingham Field.

Avon, which won its second Zone 1 championship in four years with an 18-6 record, received a complete game performance from pitcher Justin Olson, who limited Unionville to just one hit in five innings. He struck out four and walked just one.

Avon put their only two runs up on the board in the first inning. Will Thramann singled to left field and moved to third on a double by Olson. With two outs, Thramann gave Avon a 1-0 lead when scored on Andrew LeDuc’s ground ball to third base. Olson moved to third on the play.

Two pitches later, Olson stole home to give Avon a 2-0 lead. That was enough for Olson, who improved to 3-2 on the season.

Avon is off until next Wednesday and Thursday when they will host a best-of-3 series for the right to advance to the four-team Northern Division regionals.

The top five teams in each of the state’s eight American Legion zones qualified for the state tournament. The eight zone winners receive a bye. The 32 teams that finished second through fifth place will play on Saturday and Sunday in a single-elimination tournament with eight teams advancing to face the zone champions.

Simsbury finished tied for second in Zone 1 and advanced to the state tournament for the fifth straight year and the 10th time in the last 11 seasons. Simsbury begins play on Saturday at a site to be determined,

Avon 2, Unionville 0 (5)
At Avon
Unionville (8-16)               000  00  — 0-1-0
Avon (18-6)                      200  00  — 2-6-0
Max Germano and unknown; Justin Olson and Jeremy Zarwanski; WP: Olson (3-2); LP: Germano; 2B: Olson (A)

Final 2016 Zone 1 standings
                                     Zone        Overall
x-Avon                         18-6             18-6
y-Bristol                       16-8             20-10
y-Simsbury                  16-8             16-8
y-Southington              15-9             15-9
y-Wolcott                     13-11           13-11
Terryville                      11-13           11-13
Unionville                      8-16             8-16
Winsted                        7-17             9-17
Torrington                     4-20             4-20
x-won zone championship
y-qualified for state tournament