North Haven shuts down Falcon offense, eliminates Avon in ninth inning

Avon’s Justin Olson (2) had one of four hits for the Falcons Wednesday in an extra inning loss in the Class L second round.

AVON, May 31 – In a pitcher’s duel, the No. 7 North Haven High baseball team had the last word in Wednesday’s second round Class L contest. There were 22 strikeouts in the game but the Indians had three consecutive singles in the ninth inning to beat No. 10 Avon, 3-2.

Tied at 2-2, North Haven’s Brendan Clark singled with one out off Falcon reliever Jake Coppen. North Haven’s Tom Myjak followed with a single to right field as Clark raced to third base. Clark scored the game-winning run on a single to center field from Kevin Lucy.

Avon took an early 2-0 lead. In the first inning, Justin Olson doubled, moved to third base on a sacrifice bunt from Brendan Dyer and scored on a passed ball. In the third inning, Ryan Ollestad led off with a single and moved to second when Dyer was hit by a pitch. Ollstead scored on Jeremy Zarwanski’s single to right field.

But that was about it for the Avon offense, which had one hit in the remainder of the game. Avon hitters struck out 12 times in the contest.

The Indians (16-6) cut the lead to one run in the third inning. Peyton Farina drew a one-out walk from Olson and moved to third base on a single to center field from Brendan Clark. Farina scored on a sacrifice fly.

North Haven, which had 10 hits, tied the game in the fourth inning on a solo home run from Mike Soloman. The Indians got two hits each from Dominic Onofrio (2-4), Clark (2-3), Lucy (2-4, RBI) and Vinny Anastasio (2-4). Olson did strike out nine North Haven batters in seven inning of work.

The Indians move onto the Class L quarterfinals on Saturday against rival Notre Dame-West Haven.

North Haven 3, Avon 2 (9)
At North Haven
Avon (14-8)                   101  000  000 – 2-4-0
North Haven (16-6)       001  100  001 – 3-10-0
Justin Olson, Jake Coppen (8) and Jeremy Zarwanski; Preston Young, Brendan Clark (3) and unknown; WP: Clark; LP: Coppen (0-1); 2B: Justin Olson (A); HR: Matt Soloman (NH)