Fairfield Ludlowe's Season Ends With A Blowout Loss To Top Seed

For the second straight year, Fairfield Ludlowe's season ended with a blowout loss to the top seed in the quarterfinals of the CIAC Class L state tournament in West Haven.

East Lyme, scoring early and often, used a 10-run third inning to rout the eighth-seeded Falcons, 14-2, Saturday afternoon at Quigley Stadium.

The Vikings (23-2) won their 17th straight game to advance to the semifinals against either Bristol Eastern or Notre  Dame of West Haven.  The loss snapped a 10-game winning streak for Ludlowe, which finished the most successful season in school history at 20-6.

Last year,  the Falcons lost to Berlin, 15-2, in the quarterfinals. The only difference is that game was played at West Haven High School,  a short drive from ancient and rickety Quigley Stadium.

"It's a tough way to go out for all these seniors because there's some good guys on this team," said losing pitcher Steve Guasco, who surrendered eight runs in 2 1/3 innings. "It's just a great team to be a part of and we're all going to miss it."

Ludlowe has been outscored by a combined 29-4 in its last two quarterfinal appearances, but coach Keith O'Rourke prefered not to compare the years or the games.

"Last year was last year and this year was this year," he said. "I don't compare one year to another because it's a  different group, it's a different team, and it's not like our personnel is consistently the same. There was a lot of turnover this year from last year. Our entire pitching staff was different."

The Falcons reached the quarterfinals this season without a true No. 1 starter. Guasco (3-1), who was slowed by elbow tendinitis early in the year, emerged as an effective starter late in the campaign, winning three of his four starts heading into Saturday.

But he was hit hard by the Vikings, who were relentless at the plate. East Lyme started early, grabbing a 2-0 lead in the first on an RBI double by winning pitcher Alec Christian and a run-scoring single by Jordan Miele.

Ludlowe got one back in the top of the second on Zach Garoffolo's RBI single, but the Vikings made it 3-1 in the bottom half when Brandon McDermott stole third and scored on catcher Rob Ferrara's throwing error.

Then came the nightmarish third, when the Vikings sent 16 batters to the plate and recorded nine hits. Christian, who was 3-for-3 with four RBI and a sacrifice fly, and Mike Babcock each had two hits in the inning that saw the Falcons use three pitchers.

Garoffolo booted a potential double-play grounder at short that could have gotten the Falcons out of the inning with no runs scored. His error opened the floodgates, but with the way the Vikings were swinging the bats, it might not have made  a huge difference.

"I left a couple pitches up and they hit me around," said Guasco, who left after Brandon McDermott's double made it 7-1. "East Lyme's a good team. They hit the ball, and that's why they're the one seed in the tournament. They move the ball around."

Taylor Brown replaced Guasco but failed to get an out, giving up three hits and a walk. He was pulled after Christian's two-run double extended the Vikings' lead to-11-1.

Kevin Lambert came on and surrendered RBI singles to Miele and Babcock.

Freshman Nick Chandler was Ludlowe's most effective pitcher, tossing 2 1/3 hitless innings to finish the game. East Lyme finished with 15 hits.

The Falcons managed only only three hits off Christian. Ferrara doubled in front of Garoffolo's single in the second and pinch-hitter Alex Capoziello singled in the seventh.

Ludlowe got its second run in the fifth on Mike Kochiss' RBI groundout.

"We didn't play well today, and that's what it comes down to," O'Rourke said. "But we're not going to reflect on the last game when we look back on the season. We're going to reflect on the whole season."

And what a season it was. The Falcons won a school-record 20 games, won their first FCIAC championship and reached the quarterfinals of the state tournament for the third straight year.

"It's bittersweet that this is the way the season ended, but I'm extremely proud of them," O'Rourke added. "This is the best team we've had at Fairfield Ludlowe and we've had some real good teams. 

"Those kids that are in the dugout right now, they have every reason to walk with their shoulders pumped out and their heads up high. They had a great season."

When the pain of Saturday's defeat eases in the coming days, the Falcons indeed will have plenty of fond memories from the 2010 campaign. Tops among them will be the 7-4 win over Greenwich in the FCIAC championship at the Ballpark at Harbor Yard.

"Coming into the season,  if anybody was going to tell us we'd be FCIAC champs, we would all take that," Guasco said.