Fairfield American 12-Year-Old All-Stars Win Section One Title

The Fairfield American 12-year-old All-Stars capped an historic night with a resounding 8-3 victory over Farmington in the section one championship game Wednesday evening at Shelton's Nike Field.

The win propels Fairfield American into the Connecticut state championship, a two-out-of-three series against Madison, which won the section two title with a 14-8 win over Stafford on Wednesday.

The championship series will be played at Bridgeport's Blackham Field - site of Fairfield American's district two crown -  beginning Saturday afternoon (12:3o p.m) .

This marks the first time a Fairfield team will play for a state title at this level, and Fairfield American is now just one step away from a trip to the New England Regionals in Bristol, Connecticut.

Having landed where no other Fairfield American team had ever gone before, manager Chris Daley praised his players following the monumental win.

"I'm extremely proud of our guys," said Daley, whose team improved to 13-0 overall. "Just to know that this group made it further than any other group speaks volumes about how hard they work and how talented they all are.

"Once again, we won thanks to great pitching and really solid defense. Throw in the fact that there isn't an easy out from top to bottom in our lineup, and those have been the keys to our success this summer."

Starting pitcher Nick Nardone put forth a strong display, mixing pitches with authority to the tune of seven strikeouts. He allowed only one earned run over 5 1/3 innings.

After yielding a solo homer in the final frame, Nardone hit his pitch count and was replaced by Patrick O'Leary, who also surrendered a homer before buckling down on the mound.  

O'Leary also helped his own cause with a pair of sterling defensive plays to close out the contest. On a pair of liners back to the mound, O'Leary quickly corralled the ball, turned and fired to first baseman Jack Quinn to seal the triumph.

"My teammates play great defense behind me whenever I pitch, so I just focused on keeping the ball low and throwing strikes," O'Leary said. "I'm really proud that we were able to win tonight."

Nardone blasted a pair of solo shots to spearhead Fairfield American's  explosive offense. After ripping a home run in the first, Nardone's second bomb came in the fifth, when Fairfield American erupted for six runs.

Back-to-back moon shots by Nardone and Jack Quinn sparked the big inning. Heady base running by Fairfield American, coupled with a costly throwing error, opened things up for the victors.

In the earlier meeting between the teams, Farmington rallied from a seven-run defcit after four innings to twice take one-run leads before Quinn hit a two-run, walk-off homer in the bottom of the sixth to give Fairfield American a 15-14 victory.

"They (Farmington) are a very tough team that never gives up, so I wasn't taking anything for granted until we recorded that final out,"  Daley said.

"It's an historic win for us, but we're not done yet. Our guys are hungry, and they are determined to keep a good thing going."