Orange Post 127 Clinches Junior American Legion Zone 2 Championship

For the first time since 2005, Orange Post 127 has won the Zone 2 Junior American Legion Zone 2 championship. Coach Rocco DeMaio’s boys officially clinched the Zone 2 crown on Sunday when they whippeed East Haven Post 89 7-1, to complete a 4 game summer sweep of the 89ers. With that victory, Orange ended its regular season with a 15-5 record. Branford Post 83 ended up with a 14-6 slate and a game behind Post 127.

By clinching the Zone 2 championship, the Orange Juniors (17 and-under) are exempt from having to participate in the single elimination play-in tournament that begins this week. Post 127 is idle until the 16-team state wide tournament gets underway on Monday at 4 PM against an opponent yet to be determined. That first round contest will be played at Brinley Field, which is part of the Old Tavern Road Sports Complex.

On Saturday, Naugatuck and Windsor-Locks will meet in a first round play-in game. The winner of that contest takes on Wethersfield on Sunday and the survivor of that second round game comes to Orange on Monday for the state quarter-finals.

DeMaio (who is also the baseball coach at Hopkins) took over the Post 127 junior team last summer and brought it home with a 17-7 record. Now he is coach of the Zone 2 champs.

According to DeMaio, “We are in a wood bat league so we don’t get lots of extra base hits. We have some speed but we tend to bunch singles together and go from base to base. While we don’t score lots of runs, when we get good pitching and make the plays defensively, we can be tough to beat. Our pitchers know how to throw strikes and I’ll put our outfield against any other team’s outfield.”

Austin Pokluda and Steve Falcigno give Orange a solid 1-2 punch from the hill. Mark Kehlenbach and Justin Hill round out DeMaio’s list of starters. Hard-throwing Ross Weiner and D.J. Kish provide middle and late inning relief out of the bull pen.

Tim Fox is the primary catcher for Orange and Gerald Farace is his understudy. The Post 127 infield consists of Greg Gagliardi (one of the team’s top hitters) is at first base; Pokluda and Brian Diaz sharing the second base chores; Matt Ronai (another solid Orange hitter) is the shortstop, with Mike Appel and Mike Clarke splitting time at third base. If and when needed, Jack Demijian can also fill in at the hot corner. Mike Antonellis is in left field.  Brendan Sullivan (with excellent speed, a team-best batting average over .500 and more than 30 hits) is in center field and when not pitching, Weiner (who is blessed with a strong arm) is in right field.  Justin Hill and Tim Brown are valuable reserve outfielders.

"When Brendan Sullivan goes, we go,” DeMaio said.