Ridgefield Junior Legion On Fire Heading Into Postseason

Like most American Legion teams in Fairfield County, the Ridgefield junior squad was at less than full stretch for the first half of the season.

But once Post 78 got its full compliment of players, it has been unbeatable - literally.

The club will take a 13-game winning streak into the state tournament, which begins this weekend, after blanking Greenwich 5-0 on Sunday to conclude the regular season at 20-7.

"I just think we found our groove," said Kyle Miller, a senior at Bucknell who is in his first year as the team's head coach after serving as an assistant last season. "We had a lot of players, early to middle, missing because they have a life outside of baseball. But during this 13-game streak, we've had our core group."

With Trumbull (20-7) defeating Wilton 4-1 on Monday, Ridgefield is locked into second place in zone four. Even if Stamford (20-6) loses its finale to create a three-way tie for first, it wins the championship based a better head-to-head record than the other clubs.

Post 78 has been so hot that Miller is worried about having a week off before the start of the tournament. Ridgefield will learn its first-round opponent on Tuesday.

"The week off is definitely scaring me," he said. "But we're definitely getting back to practice (on Tuesday) and keep things hot."

Ridgefield played in a tournament over the Fourth of July weekend, which created a backlog of games. Fortunately, the team has a deep five-man rotation consisting of Matt Johnson, Chris McClelland, Joe Mallow, Brad Rosenfeld and Colin Virag.

Ridgefield boasts a staff ERA of 2.99 with five shutouts - one behind zone leader Stamford. McClelland is the only rising senior in the group, meaning all the others will be back next year if they so choose.

Ridgefield also features closer Jeff Rohr, who is 4-0 with a save. Miller calls him "our lights-out, sixth and seventh inning pitcher."

Offensively,Ridgefield has relied on a total team effort, rather than depending on one or two players.

During the streak, Miller has stayed with the same batting order one through six: why would he change something that isn't broken?

Each of the first six hitters in the lineup is batting over .500: shortstop Adam Zandry (.303), first baseman McClelland (.371), left fielder Timo Murro (.368), third baseman Rohr (.372), right fielder Danny Lake (.333) and center field Jason Marra (.350).

Marra is the fastest guy on the team and always a threat to steal while Rohr, whom Miller described as the club's leader, came on late to take over the team lead in batting average.

"We've been hitting all season," Miller said. "Now what we've been doing during the streak is we've been getting timely hitting. I think that's been the big difference."

The certainly is a confident bunch heading into postseason play.

"I definitely expect to compete with a anybody they throw at us," Miller said. "We've been playing excellently. If we keep playing the way we are, we're going to turn some heads and surprise some people and go far in the tournament. That's definitely our goal."

Four teams qualified for postseason play in the zone as Norwalk snuck in with a 15-11 record.