Willimantic's bats erupt in 9-2 victory

Mike Sypher, The Chronicle, Willimantic, Conn.
·2 min read

Jun. 22—WILLIMANTIC — Ken Valliere didn't quite like the vibe emanating from the home team's dugout during the early innings of Tuesday night's Zone 6 American Legion baseball game against Tri- Town at Recreation Park.

Most of the noise was coming from Tri- Town's bats as well as the car alarms and firecrackers going off on occasion near the adjacent softball diamonds.

Valliere was hoping that maybe, just maybe, if he raised his voice a bit, his players might raise their levels of concentration when they dug in at the batter's box.

Message received. ... Willimantic ( 6- 1) knotted matters at 2- all with a gift run in the third inning, then batted around in a 6- run fourth en route to a 9- 2 victory in the first of a 3-game series against Tri-Town (2-2).

Jack Valliere ( 3 RBI) and Patrick Brennan each cracked three hits, Nolan Klimkiewicz ( 2 hits) and Nathan Spear each scored a pair of runs, Logan Palmer and Jacob Wojtkowiak each added two hits and righty Matt Lafountain provided the locals with 3- plus innings of sterling relief to earn the victory.

" I thought we were sitting back a little bit, not being as aggressive as we could be, the way we should be up there at the plate," Coach Valliere said of his in- game pep talk. " Once we started getting aggressive, we got some good at- bats."

Willimantic took a quick 1- 0 lead in the home half of the first inning when Klimkiewicz ripped a lead- off triple to the left- field corner and trotted home when Jack Valliere followed with an RBI single up the middle.

Tri- Town, which left the bases loaded in the top of the first and stranded two more base-runners in the second, finally broke through against Willimantic starter Brandon White in the third, scoring twice on four hits, including RBI singles by Jonathan Ferraro and Robert Ellsworth.

Willimantic knotted matters at 2- all in the bottom of the third when Spear, who reached base three times out of the No. 9 slot in the batting order, led off with an infield single and scored when a pick- off throw to first rolled all the way to the fence in right field, allowing the Coventry High product to race around the bases and score easily.

Tri- Town, which collected eight of its nine total hits in the first 3- plus frames, mounted another threat in the top of the fourth before Lafountain relieved with

WILLIMANTIC, Page 10