Candlewood Valley Eliminated From Senior Babe Ruth Tournament

With 15 hits and eight walks, Stamford had a steady stream of runners during Friday's Senior Babe Ruth state tournament game against Candlewood Valley.

More them half of them scored, and Candlewood Valley was eliminated following a 15-4 loss at New Canaan's Mead Park.

In Thursday's 9-4 defeat to Housatonic Valley, many of the players complained of a tight strike zone with coach Dave Bruckenthal even suggesting that the plate umpire influenced the outcome of the game.

A day later, the Ridgefield/Danbury-based team fell victim to a hot-hitting Stamford club that has reeled off four straight wins in the losers' bracket after dropping its tournament opener. Stamford with face Housatonic Valley in the finals on Saturday,

Candlewood Valley, which also gave Stamford extra outs by committing seven errors, finished 2-2 after winning its first two contests.

Stamford's defense also left a lot to be desired, as it committed five errors in a sloppy contest, but its firepower was too much to overcome.

"One of our soft spots in this whole tournament was we didn't have a lot of depth at pitching," Bruckenthal said. "We were a little short tonight and we went with what we had."

Starter P.J. Geary held Stamford scoreless through the first two innings, thanks to some defensive help in the top of the second from shortstop Dan Coakley, who made a perfect relay throw to the plate to nail Connor Garrity trying to score on Chris LoRusso's double.

Geary then helped his cause with an RBI single in the bottom of the second to give Candlewood Valley a 1-0 lead. But he was wasn't fooling too many hitters and ended up surrendering seven runs and 10 hits over just 3 2/3 innings.

Stamford reached Geary for four runs in the second then tacked on three more in the fourth to grab a 7-1 lead.

LoRusso, Bobby Horn and Sean Mullins paced Stamford's attack with three hits apiece.

"They got to (Geary) the second time through the rotation," said Bruckenthal, who used five pitchers. "But the bottom line is we leave here with our heads held high."

Tyler Edwards, D.J. Bruckenthal, the coach's son, Coakley and Matt Klampert followed Geary on the mound.

Candlewood Valley tried to make a game of it in the fourth, when Edwards ripped an RBI triple and scored on a throwing error to pull his team within 7-3.

But Stamford answered with three runs in the fifth off Edwards to build a 10-3 cushion and essentially put away the contest. It tacked on five runs in the top of the seventh to turn the contest into a rout.

Candlewood Valley produced its final run on an RBI double by D.J. Bruckenthal in the fourth and finished with seven hits. Coakley (double and single) and Edwards (triple and single) each had two hits.

Stamford starter Nate Newhall went the distance for the victory.