Avon, Simsbury game scoreless and suspended after 10 innings

Avon’s Justin Olson pitched 8.1 innings Wednesday night of scoreless baseball for the Avon American Legion baseball team against Simsbury. The game was suspended after 10 innings due to darkness.

AVON, June 13 – Two of the teams hoping to be contenders for the 2018 Zone 1 American Legion baseball championship played 10 innings of scoreless baseball on Wednesday night before running out of daylight at Buckingham Field.

Avon and Simsbury are tied 0-0 after 10 innings of play before the game was suspended by the umpires due to darkness. It will resume the game on July 10 in the 11th inning at 5 p.m. before the regularly scheduled contest between the two teams.

Avon hurler Justin Olson went 8 1/3 innings, allowing six hits and striking out five.

Simsbury (5-0, 1-0 Zone 1) had runners on first and third base in the third inning but Post 201 got out of the jam with an inning-ending double play. Simsbury had runners on first and third base in the fifth inning but Olson got Simsbury’s Jack Montgomery to fly out to right field and James Mattson to fly out to left field.

Avon (3-0, 2-0 Zone 1) had just four hits in the game. The closest they came to scoring was in the ninth inning. Justin Zarwanski singled and moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt from Ryan Ollestad (2-for-2). He moved to third base on a single from Chris Jacobs.

But Avon’s Will Boone hit a ground ball to Simsbury shortstop Nate Orluk, who fired home and threw out Zarwanski. They were the first hits of the game allowed by reliever Post 84 Luke Benneche, who had pitched three scoreless innings before the ninth.

Simsbury starting pitcher Nate Langmeier went six innings, struck out seven and allowed just two hits.

The longest Avon American Legion game since the team was resurrected in 2009 is 13 innings when Post 201 dropped a 1-0 decision to Winsted last July. Simsbury and Avon went 12 innings in July 2014 with Simsbury prevailing 10-7.

Avon 0, Simsbury 0 (10), suspended
At Avon
Simsbury (1-0)                     000  000  000  0 – 0-6-1
Avon (2-0)                            000  000  000  0 – 0-4-1
Nate Langmeier, Luke Benneche (6) and Jon Wilson; Justin Olson, Dylan Nastri (9), Chris Jacobs (10) and Justin Zarwanski; 2B: Jake Nichols (S)