Amity Baseball Ends With Loss to Newington in the Semifinals

Over the years, one of the hallmarks of Amity baseball has been its defense. Rarely have the Spartans defeated themselves with leaky defense. Tuesday night was the exception to that rule. The Black and Gold made four miscues and gave up four unearned runs in its 6-5 loss to 17^th ranked Newington in the Class LL semi-finals at Waterbury’s Municipal Stadium. To make matters worse for Amity, three of those bobbles came in the top of the 10^th inning when it gave away three of those unearned runs.

Heading into the top of the 10^th inning, the score was deadlocked at 3-3. E.J. Ashworth had come on to replace starter Mike Concato at the outset of the sixth inning and had held Newington scoreless on just one hit for four innings while striking out five. After throwing 18 consecutive scoreless innings on only five hits, things began to unravel for Ashworth in the top of the 10^th. Tyler Barrett led off by lining a double into left center field. A rare Ashworth wild pitch moved pinch runner Hunter Blais on to third base with no one out. Amity seemed to dodge a huge bullet when Ashworth picked him off third base.

That huge sigh of Spartan did not last long. Cole Bryant topped a slow roller that was scooped up by second baseman, Nick Baviello, but in his haste to get the runner out, he threw wildly to first base. The combined hit/error put Bryant on second with one out. Sam Tinkham slammed a run-scoring base hit up the middle that gave Newington a 4-3 lead. Throwing errors by third baseman Keith Klebart and catcher Paul Gusmano allowed Tinkham  to come around and also score.

Ryan Callahan ripped a line drive that slammed off Ashworth’s chin and he immediately dropped onto the pitcher’s mound where he laid motionless for several minutes. He finally got up and left the field on his own, holding a bag of ice to his chin. Ashworth was replaced by Sam Nepiarsky, who was greeted by a perfectly executed suicide squeeze bunt from Josh Barnett that brought Pat Meucci home with the Indians’ sixth run of the game.

Trailing by three runs (6-3) as it came to bat in the bottom of the 10^th, Amity was not about to go off quietly into the dark of the night. With one out, Klebart and Vin Siena banged out back-to-back base hits. Both runners moved up a base on a wild pitch from Bryant and then raced home on Brian Speer’s two-run single into left field. When left fielder Fred Burgos bobbled the base hit, Speer steamed on to second base.

With the Indians clinging to a 6-5 lead with two outs and the tying run in scoring position, Bryant fired a game-ending called third strike by Adam Kyasky.

Grayson Amorso led off the bottom of the third with a two-bagger into left center field and soon scored on Klebart’s base hit. That 1-0 lead was short-lived as Newington (which lost to Amity in the 2007 Class LL finals) matched it in the top of the fourth inning. Bryant crushed a lead-off double over the head of Amaroso, the Spartan center fielder and was bunted on to third by Tinkham’s sacrifice bunt. With the first of the Indians’ two perfectly executed suicide squeeze bunts, Bryant raced home with the tying run as Meucci dumped a nubber between third base and the pitcher's mound.

Amity matched that run in the bottom of the fourth as Kyasky spanked a one-out single, moved around to third on Justin Ashworth’s base hit and came steaming home on a delayed steal.

Coming to bat in the top of the fifth inning on the short end of a 2-1 tally, Newington quickly gained a 3-2 lead. Singles by Jon Snyder and Armando Soler were followed by grounder off the bat of Barrett that rolled right through Baviello’s legs. With Solar at third base and Barrett at second, Concato proceeded to walk both Tinkham and Meucci to force in a run and give the Indians their 3-2 lead.

Fifth inning base hits by Klebart and Siena along with a bases-loading walk to Ted Ballou set the stage for Speer’s game tying fly ball to left field. With the score deadlocked at 3-3 Ashworth and Tinkham, the Newington reliever,  matched zeroes for the next four innings.

 The 16-8 winners were led by Bryant (who hurled the final inning and earned the victory) who doubled, singled, and scored two runs. Meucci added two base hits, two RBI, and also scored a run.

Amity (which ended its season at 19-7) saw Klebart single three times, drive in a run, and also score a run. Speer chipped in with his squeeze bunt single and three RBI. Kyasky singled twice, stole a base, and scored a run.

Despite his four brilliant relief innings, Ashworth was responsible for all three Newington runs in the top of the 10^th and is charged with the loss that closed out his record at 8-4.

Newinton now advances to the Class LL Finals on Saturday at Muzzy Field in Bristol. It will face Central Connecticut Conference rival, 7^th-ranked Southington, which defeated 6^th ranked New Britain 6-3 in the nightcap of the Municipal Stadium double-header.