Unionville Eliminates Cheshire in Legion Tournament Game Three

When Unionville traveled to Stamford on Monday, July 30 the team knew they would be playing two games necessitated by rain-delay postponements from Sunday.  The team anticipated two nine inning games but what they didn’t know was that by 9:00 that night the record book would show a total of twenty-two innings played, nearly eight hours of baseball. In a league whose regular season games are seven innings, to go nine is a stretch; to play more than nine is a challenge.  The Unionville squad rose to the challenge to hand Cheshire an 8 to 6 loss in thirteen innings. 

The game was tied several times as each team battled. Unionville’s first run came in the third on Travis Kozak’s groundout to plate Jack Roy. Clean up hitter David Kerlejza singled Johnny Arcidiacono home. Jimmy Mulpeter attempted to score on the play but was thrown out at the plate. Score 2-0 Unionville.

In the fifth, Cheshire scored a run and three more in the seventh. Score 4-2 Cheshire.  Unionville answered back by plating two in the top of the ninth to tie the score at 4. Cheshire could come up with no runs in the bottom of the ninth forcing the game into extra innings and also requiring the cancellation of the last game of the night between Branford and Southington, an experience to which the squad from Unionville could well relate.

In the tenth, the Cheshire pitcher, Colin Murphy, hit the first batter, Max Spracklin and the next up, Justin Rappaport, hit a bunt single down the first baseline to move him into scoring position.   Spracklin scored on Travis’ Kozak’s single that was mishandled by the first baseman. Arcidiacono singled Rapport home. Kozak and Arcidiacono attempted to double steal from second and third but were both tagged out to end the inning and any further Unionville threat.  Score 6-4 Unionville.

In the bottom of the tenth, Cheshire answered back with a double and an RBI ground out to make the score 6-5.  A pop up bounced out of the shortstop’s glove and the score was tied once again. 

Neither team scored in the eleventh or twelfth.  Unionville went three up and three down in both innings while Cheshire left one runner on first in the eleventh and the potential winning run in scoring position in the twelfth. 

In the top of the thirteenth Jeff Schweighoffer ripped a single down the third baseline to score Arcidiacono and Mac Crispino singled up the middle to plate Mulpeter.   Score 8-6 Unionville.

In the bottom of the thirteenth, Cheshire made a threat when the lead off batter hit a bloop single to shallow right and stole second.  With two outs the fourth batter walked but both runners were left stranded as Unionville easily got the third Cheshire out to end the game and hand Cheshire its season ending loss. 

Starting pitcher Chad Morin hurled six solid innings of one run ball allowing only 4 hits, walking one and striking out two.  Juan Rojas relieved in the seventh and gave up three runs on two hits, walked two and struck out one.  Brien Wiegard came on in the eighth to relieve Rojas who had been plagued the latter half of the season by an elbow problem.  Wiegard was effective for six innings; giving up two runs on three hits, walking three and stricking out one.

A game that began at 4:40 p.m. ended four plus hours later at 8:52 p.m. and the boys from Post 32 packed up their bats and gloves and with another win under their belts made their way back home with the knowledge that they would return via the same route the following day to face #3 seed Oakville for a 3:15 game at Cubeta Stadium.  This time the team from Unionville was no longer one of the Final 16 but rather one of the Final 8 teams remaining in the tournament.  

From 76 Legion teams in the state of Connecticut, 37 qualified for tournament play.  The winner of each of the 8 zones automatically qualified for the Final 16 Tournament. The remaining 29 teams needed to win one, two, or three play-in games to secure one of the other 8 spots in the Final 16. Unionville won their two play-in games against much higher seeded teams to secure a berth in the tournament finals then won two additional games against higher seeded teams to become one of the Final 8. 

One of 8 teams out of an original 76 is quite an accomplishment. Our hats are off to the boys and the coaches of the Unionville Senior Legion Post 32 Baseball Team!

Submitted by Unionville Legion Baseball.