SOUTHINGTON — Two of the top baseball teams in the state squared off on Wednesday evening as the No. 3 ranked Southington Blue Knights hosted the No. 8 ranked Newington Nor’Easters.
In an evening game that was moved up 45 minutes due to the pending rain, the Blue Knights showed that they are a state contender with a dominant 12-2 victory in six innings over their tough CCC opponent.
With the win, Southington improved to 7-0 and is one win away from clinching to playoff berth. Newington fell to 4-2 with the loss.
In the win, senior Colin Crowley hit a home run, and scored three runs as senior Carson Lentini also scored three runs. Senior Frank Boutot and Caden Angelo each scored a pair of runs in the win.
For Newington, Jaylin Manson recorded a second-straight game where he got a hit during all of his at-bats. After batting 5-5 in the team’s Monday win against Windsor, Manson went 2-2 against Southington scoring one of the team’s two runs. The other run came from freshman Dylan Chamberland off an RBI from Ryan Hurley. Chamberland also had an RBI in the game.
Southington got off to a 2-0 lead after the first inning as Boutot and Crowley each scored. Angelo and junior Shane Richters each recorded an RBI.
The biggest moment of the game came when Newington committed an error at first base with two outs that allowed Southington to add four more runs in the frame after already adding a run. As Newington seemed to end the inning, before escaping more fire, an error was committed at first base which allowed Southington to go up 7-0.
Both head coaches from each side thought the error committed in the inning was a big factor into the result of the game
“There’s always a game-changing play, and I think that was the game-changing moment,” said Southington head coach Stan Switala. “We capitalized on it, one of our things this year has been capitalizing on our opponent’s mistakes, we’re going to run everything out, give 100 percent and hopefully things happen and they did, it worked out well.”
“You give Southington extra outs, they’re going to take advantage,” said Newington head coach Ben Alaimo. “They’re just too good not to, we fought back, we put some runs on the board and sowed some competitive fire which I was happy about.”
Newington got some rhythm going in the third and had their most success of any inning, scoring two runs and cutting Southington’s lead to five. Manson led the inning by hitting a double, and Chamberland brought him home with an RBI double of himself. Chamberland scored as Ryan Hurley hit an RBI double.
At the bottom of the fourth, Crowley hit a home run to right field that put Southington up 8-3 before Lentini added another run, going up 9-2.
Crowley said he wasn’t expecting a fastball to be thrown at him, but with the perfect positioning and a good swing, he hit the ball out of the right field for the dagger.
“It felt good, he gave me an off-speed on the first pitch,” said Crowley. “I wasn’t expecting a fastball, but he gave it to me. “It was right over the plate so I just put a good swing on it.”
Three more runs scored by Boutot, Angelo, and Lentini ended the game in six innings as Southington ended the game with a 12-2 score.
While Southington has certainly shown through their first seven games that they’re a true state contender, Switala isn’t thinking about anything else except for the current opponent he faces. With EO Smith up next on Friday on the road, they’re the only thing on Switala’s mind.
“For us it’s one game at a time,” said Switala. “We worry about the team that we’re going to play. Today was Newington, we prepared for Newington, we won this game and now we move on to the next game. “I can’t even think about the future, all I’m thinking about is EO Smith on Friday.”
Alaimo is hoping his young team can learn from playing a good, experienced team like Southington. His team doesn’t carry as much experience as Southington and he hopes his young team can take a few lessons from the Southington baseball team.
“This is a high-level high-caliber baseball tournament style-tournament game,” Alaimo said. “Southington and Newington have had some absolute battles and wars in recent years. We’re both at different stages. They’ve got three-year returning varsity players. “We’re starting 11 underclassmen after losing 11 seniors.”
“What my kids are able to see is what experience looks like,” Alaimo continued. “How to take advantage of other teams’ mistakes. How to play with poise, confidence. The look and swagger that Southington brought to the field today was something I’m hoping my guys see, learn from, and apply to their own game.”
