Avon Wins Little League Section II Title on Leopold's Walk-Off Homer

The Avon Little League 11-12 Baseball All-Stars won the Connecticut Section II championship in dramatic fashion Wednesday as Sam Leopold hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the sixth for a 7-5 win over Guilford at Southeast Park in Mansfield.

The team was down 5-4, with Dylan Nastri and Blake Thompson on base, when Leopold hit the home run that scored his team three runs to launch Avon into the lead and ultimately the win, according to assistant coach Chris Moore.

Team manager Steve Harris also commended Blake Thompson for a "big two-out double with two outs in the ninth to keep the rally alive," Jack Stokesbury for a "big defensive play" in the "top of the sixth."

His son, Connor Harris scored an early two-run single in the section championships and Nastri also hit a two-run single, scoring the team's first four runs.

Avon now advances to play Fairfield American, which won the Section I title, in a best-of-3 championship series starting 3 p.m. Saturday at Annex Little League in New Haven. The second game starts at 7 p.m. on Sunday and there will be another at the same time on Monday if necessary, according to the state's Little League calendar.

Congratulations to Avon’s 2012 Major League (11-12) All-Stars and their coaches:

• Will Boone
• Connor Harris
• Dylan Hellyar
• Sam Leopold
• Eamon Moore
• Dylan Nastri
• Ryan Ollestad
• Dan Renwick
• Jack Stokesbury
• Adam Theriault
• Blake Thompson
• Will Thramann  

Manager: Stephen Harris
Coaches: Chris Moore, Jim Nastri and Ron Theriault.

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Editor's note: The original version of this article incorrectly identified the player who hit the winning home run as Dan Renwick. Dan played great, but it was Sam who hit the home run.