West Haven’s Wootten handcuffs Sabercats in CCBL tournament, 2-0

Simsbury shortstop C.J. Brito-Trinidad tags out West Haven’s Jack Griffen trying to steal second base during Tuesday night’s CCBL tournament game in Simsbury. Sabercat catcher Kyle Desjardins made the throw. More photos

SIMSBURY, July 26, 2021 – The West Haven Sailors didn’t finish the 2021 Connecticut Collegiate Baseball League (CCBL) regular season on a strong note. The first-year squad won just one of their final seven games of the season with a record of 1-4-2.

But the Sailors are making up for it in the league’s annual championship tournament.

West Haven pitcher Matt Wootton threw a complete game one-hit shutout and struck out 14 batters to lead the Sailors to a 2-0 win over Simsbury Monday night at Memorial Field. In two games, the Sailors (11-8-2) have beaten the No. 4 seed Western Massachusetts Pioneers and the top-seeded Sabercats.’

West Haven gets a night off before getting an opportunity to play Wednesday night and earn a berth in the tournament title game with a win.

Simsbury (18-6) falls into the consolation round will host an elimination game on Tuesday night when they host Hamden at 6:30 p.m. at Memorial Field.

“Sometimes you have tip your hat to the guy across the lines,” Sabercats skipper Mike Sinacori said. “(Wootten) threw extremely well tonight. He kept our guys off balance. He had great control of the (strike) zone down low and our guys were just letting it go. That was a fantastic pitching performance.”

Seven of the 14 strikeouts came as the Sabercats watched the third strike sail past them.

“I just wanted to get ahead with the fastball and use the curveball and changeup whenever I needed to,” Wootten said. “I wanted to get ahead with my fastball and make that my dominant pitch tonight.”

West Haven’s Matt Wootten allowed just one hit and struck out 14 in the Sailor’s 2-0 win over Simsbury Tuesday night at Memorial Field. More photos

Simsbury struggled on the basepaths as well. Sailors catcher Jason Otrowski threw out two Simsbury runners in three attempts.

“This is a blip in the road,” Sinacori said. “We’ll come back We’ve come back hard tomorrow and see how it goes.”

West Haven took a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Rob Olah led off the inning with a double to left field. Teammate Mike Ferrett reached on an error when a Sabercat outfielder failed to secure a fly ball and it fell out of his glove. The two runners moved to second and third base on Eddie Zanor’s infield groundout.

West Haven’s Matt Solomon grounded out to Simsbury shortstop C.J. Brito-Trinidad but Olah scored from third base for the first run of the game.

The Sailors added a second run in the fourth inning. Harrison Feinberg led off the inning with a walk and moved to second base when Olah walked. Feinberg moved to third on a stolen base. After Simsbury pitcher Ryan Laubscher struck out a batter, Zanor grounded out to shortstop and Feinberg scored from third base for a 2-0 lead.

West Haven threatened in the sixth inning. With two outs, the Sailors loaded the bases thanks to a walk and two singles but Sabercat reliever Arjun Grover (Avon) got a strikeout to end the inning.

Simsbury outfielder Josh Guilmart made an outstanding catch in center field in the seventh inning, racing and diving to catch a fly ball to end the inning.

Simsbury only had five baserunners in the game and two were erased trying to steal second base. J.W. Wilson had a single for the Sabercats in the first inning.

Simsbury reliever Arjun Grover pitched one inning of scoreless relief, getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth inning.  More photos

Simsbury, who won eight straight games from June 28 through July 18, earned the No. 1 seed by posting the best record in the league this summer at 17-5. The Sabercats, who won 10 of their last 12 regular season games, opened the tournament with a 4-3 win over Wallingford on Sunday — the third one-run victory for Simsbury this summer.

West Haven 2, Simsbury 0
At Simsbury
West Haven (11-8-2)       010  100  0  — 2-5-1
Simsbury (18-6)               000  000  0  — 0-1-1
Matt Wootton and Jason Otrowski; Ryan Laubscher, Jake Nichols (5), Arjun Grover (6), Jack Foley (7) and Kyle Desjardins; WP: Wootton; LP: Laubscher; 2B: Rob Olah (WH); 3B: none; HR: none

2021 CCBL championship tournament