Post 127 Staying Alive

The hope is still alive!

Trailing 6-5 as it came to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning Monday night, Orange Post 127 knew that a loss to Shelton Post 16 would eliminate Orange from contention for a berth in the American Legion play-in tournament. Ted Ballou’s 1-out single followed by consecutive 2-out doubles into right field from Sean Butler and Adam Kyasky gave the locals a 7-6 come-from-behind, walk-off win at Brinley Field. It was the first time this summer that Post 127 had recorded a come-from-behind, walk-off win. With the Orange victory, both teams now sit sat 7-11 and have 6 games left in their regular seasons.

Kyasky said, “I went up hoping to get a good pitch that I could drive into the outfield.  As soon as I hit the ball, I thought it would fall. This has been a tough summer, but this makes things a little better.  We’re still alive and we’re not dead until we are dead.”

Post 16 pecked away at Orange starting pitcher Jack Lubin for pairs of runs in the second, fourth, and fifth innings. In the second inning, Matt Brady singled home 1 run and the other scored on a passed ball charged to catcher Jim Martino. Two innings later, Lubin handed out 2 of his 8 walks and also hit Ryan D’Sousa with a pitch to load the bases with no one out. After picking Mike Ferro off first base, Lubin served up a base hit to Mike Dew to reload the bases. He then unloaded a wild pitch that enabled Dustin Chmeliewski to race home. A catcher’s interference call against Martino brought D’Sousa across home plate and gave Shelton a 4-0 lead.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Post 16 hurler Mike Georgalas lost his shut out bid. Consecutive singles by Brian Speer, Sean Butler, and Kyasky loaded the bases with 1 out. Georgalas was then called for a balk that allowed Speer to come home with the first Post 127 run of the game.

Two more Lubin walks at the outset of the fifth inning, 2 wild pitches, and a stolen base put both Ferro and Chmeliewski into scoring position. After Ted Ballou came in to relieve Lubin, another passed ball and Mike Dew’s RBI single extended Shelton’s lead to 6-1.

In the bottom of the fifth, Brian Kernan worked Georgalas for a lead off walk and immediately swiped second base.

With one out, Nick Baviello ripped a double into right field that drove Kernan home with the hosts’ second run of the game. Ballou

followed with an RBI 2-bagger in the opposite direction and later scored on a  1-out infield grounder by Kyasky that sliced Shelton’s advantage back to 1 lone run (6-5).

In addition driving in the 1 run in the fifth and scoring another as well as singling and bringing home the tying run in the bottom of the seventh inning, the University of Hartford-bound Ballou also pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings in relief of Lubin to pick up his first decision of the summer. During his term on the mound, Ballou allowed only 1 hit while striking out 5 and walking only 1.

“I haven’t pitched since my sophomore year at Amity. I definitely felt better tonight than I did the last time I pitched. That time, I didn’t have much grip w my hand as my broken finger was still healing. It’s still a little tight but I can bend it so I can throw both my fast ball and my curve,” Ballou said.

In addition to Ballou belting his run-scoring 2-bagger and adding a base hit, he also scored twice. Kyasky stroked the game-winning RBI double, singled and drive in 2 runs. Butler doubled, singled, scored a run, and drove in another run. Speer had 2 of the winners’ 8 hits and also scored 2 runs.

Shelton was led by Dew (2 base hits and an RBI).

 According to Mirto, “Sean Butler got a couple of big hits tonight. He’s a good fast ball hitter and he hits the ball hard.”

He added with a rarely seen big grin, “This was a really good win and we needed it badly. This is the first time all summer that we’ve come from behind to win a game. Ted’s a fast healer and he threw the ball pretty good tonight. Early in the season, he was in the running for the closer job, but then, he injured his finger. On top of that, we haven’t had many situations that needed a closer.