Strong Pitching Earns Amity a Win Over North Haven

Rebounding from Thursday’s 5-3 road loss to Foran, the Amity baseball team returned home to Janenda Field on Friday to edge past North Haven 2-1.  The key to the Spartans’ third victory in five games was the strong pitching of senior right-hander E.J. Ashworth. In addition to allowing the Indians only one run on five hits, he also struck out eight batters and walked only one as his record improved to 2-1.

“E.J. pitched really well today,” Coach Sal Coppola said. “He used all three of his pitches and mixed speeds very effectively. I was very happy with his effort. He only walked one guy. Yesterday against Foran, we walked six or seven guys.  Fundamentally, we played a really sound game today.”
Amity scratched out a unearned run in the bottom of the second inning. Mark Esposito led off with a single into right center field. Ted Ballou followed with a hard shot that hand-cuffed North Haven third baseman Ron Sherman and Keith Klebart bunted both runners up a base. Following a free pass to Brian Speer, Esposito scored on a fielder’s choice by Rob Rosner. Ballou was then picked off third base on an inning-ending attempted double steal.

The score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the fifth inning when Amity added a hitless run. Another error by Sherman put Speer on second base. Rosner walked and Adam Kyasky sacrificed both runners into scoring position. Vin Siena worked a bases-loading free pass from North Haven starter and loser Kevin Bucknall. Chris Katz’s roller to second base erased Siena at second base but also allowed Speer to score Amity’s second unearned run. With runners still on the corners, Nick Baviello stroked an inning-ending fly ball to right field.

According to Coppola, “We didn’t do much hitting today. Both of our runs came on fielder’s choices. Our guys (Rosner and Katz) ran hard down the first base line to break up double plays. If we had dogged it down the line, we don’t get either run. Their kid (Bucknall) did a great job keeping us off balance with a lot of off-speed stuff. He kept moving the ball in and out.”

After throwing five shut-out innings, Ashworth served up consecutive sixth inning base hits to Devin Kresge and Christian Kauranchov. After Eric Yavarone walked to load the bases, Esposito misplayed Kevin Erbe’s shot down the third base line, allowing Kresge to score. Now leading by only a run (2-1) with only one out and the bases still loaded, Ashworth whiffed Chris LaVorgna and got Mike Acampora on an inning-ending tapper back to the box.

Esposito came on to pitch the seventh inning, looking to save Ashworth’s strong showing, but got himself into trouble by handing out free passes to Sherman and Bucknall. With one out and both Indians in scoring position, Esposito slammed the door shut by getting Kresge on a soft roller back to him and then striking out Kaurnachov.

Coppola added, “Espo wasn’t really wild. He wasn’t missing by much. It was nice to see us bounce back after yesterday’s loss to Foran. They also had us off balance by throwing a difficult junk ball pitcher at us.”

Bucknall (now 0-2) gave up both Amity runs (both were unearned runs) and allowed only two hits in his five inning stint. He also fanned two and walked four.

Kaurnachov accounted for two of the losers’ five hits.  With this Southern Connecticut Conference inter-divisional loss, North Haven’s record dipped to 1-3.