South Windsor Legion Defeats Enfield for Fourth Straight Victory

The South Windsor American Legion senior baseball team continued its revival after a tough start to the season with a 3-1 victory over Enfield at Enrico Fermi High School on Thursday.

It was the fourth straight victory for South Windsor after beginning the season with six consecutive losses.

Leading the way on Thursday was South Windsor pitcher Brian Finnegan, who pitched a complete game, allowing one unearned run and two hits, while striking out three and walking two.

“He’s been steady for us,” South Windsor head coach George Yates said. “Between him and [pitcher Adam] Bettigole, it’s like having 1 and 1A.”

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Enfield pitcher Trevor Breton nearly matched his South Windsor counterpart pitch for pitch, going seven innings, allowing two earned runs on five hits, while striking out six and walking two and hitting two batters.

South Windsor (4-6) scored a run in the top of the third when Nick Johnson scampered home from third after Steve Battaglini got caught in a rundown between first and second on Robbie Linnell’s groundout to first. Enfield shortstop Avery Boissy threw home, but Johnson slid home safely as Battaglini advanced to second.

South Windsor got two more runs in the top of the sixth, as Billy Manzi singled home Anthony Garcia to make it 2-0. Andrew King, who doubled between Manzi’s and Garcia’s singles, later scored on a delayed steal of home to give South Windsor a 3-0 lead.

Enfield (8-5) managed to scratch out a run in the bottom of the sixth, when Charlie Smith scored from third on shortstop Bettigole’s throwing error.

But Post 80, which was missing four starters and called up two players from the junior squad for the game, couldn’t get anything going on offense. Only Boissy (leadoff double in the first) and Matt Nicewicz (third inning single) had hits for Enfield.

Head coach Jim Kraucunas was circumspect in the loss.

“We played hard,” he said. “We gave them a couple of unearned runs, but otherwise we did OK. We’ve got to hit the ball. We only had two hits. … When you have to bring up a couple of guys, it’s tough.”

South Windsor still sits in seventh place in Zone 8, one game behind East Hartford, while Enfield is in second behind first-place Windsor Locks (9-2).