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06/29/2015 12:00 AMThe Shoreline Senior Legion baseball team was hungry for a win after dropping its first six games in Zone 3 play this summer and Michael Grant’s team satisfied its appetite with a double helping of victory last weekend.
Shoreline squared off against zone frontrunner Cheshire for a three-game series on June 27 and 28. Cheshire entered the set with an unblemished record and won the first game 9-3, but then Shoreline came back to prevail in the final two contests by scores of 5-4 and 1-0. Grant’s club rallied from a 3-1 deficit in the seventh inning of the first win and then Old Saybrook graduate Jake Faulkingham went the distance on a four-hitter in the rubber match.
The Shoreline squad is now 3-7 overall and with a record of 2-6 in Zone 3 to sit in seventh place out of nine teams—ahead of Madison and Guilford. Grant and company are 4.5 games off the pace of first-place Berlin, which is 6-1. Cheshire is right behind at 11-2.
“It’s unbelievable. To take two out of three from Cheshire, who was in first place and won a state title last year, is a tough task,” said Coach Grant. “I’m happy extremely happy for our guys.”
The Cheshire series began with a doubleheader on the road on June 27 and Shoreline lost the opener 9-3. Cheshire set the tone by scoring three runs in the first inning. Shoreline came back to tie it with three in the third, but then Post 92 blew it open by plating six in the fourth. Shoreline’s big inning started with a single by center fielder Jake Mastroianni and a walk from Westbrook’s Sean Antonson. Catcher Arno Utegg, Faulkingham, and Valley Regional student Jacob Meketa each followed with RBI singles to account for Shoreline’s three spot. Starting pitcher Alex Hartzell had some struggles on the mound, although Valley grad Evan Makowicki threw three scoreless innings of relief.
What could have proved a demoralizing loss instead served as a launching pad for Shoreline’s first triumph of the season as Grant and company rallied to stun Cheshire 5-4. Cheshire led 2-0 before Haddam-Killingworth’s Trevor Mann and Meketa hit back-to-back doubles to slice the deficit in half. Post 92 added an insurance run in the sixth, but it wasn’t enough because Shoreline put on its rally caps and broke loose for four in the top of seven. Left fielder Sam Henry and Mann singled to get it going and both came home on a game-tying, pinch-hit single to left field from Old Saybrook’s Mike Gargano. Faulkingham then singled to right to score Meketa for a 4-3 lead and Antonson’s sacrifice fly scored Gargano for Shoreline’s insurance marker. That extra run was huge because Cheshire used consecutive doubles to make it 5-4, but couldn’t get the equalizer as Adam Seegert recorded the game’s final out on a fly ball to left. Seegert, who’s from Old Saybrook, pitched all seven innings to notch the win for Shoreline.
“It was great. It was an awesome win. The kids battled and I was proud of them. It’s difficult to get through a doubleheader like that and win a game in that fashion. The kids could have hung their heads, but they stayed focused, picked each other up, and we got some key hits in a big spot. It was a great team effort,” said Grant, whose team’s other win was 4-0 victory versus Danielson in non-zone play. “Adam was getting his two-seam fastball, change, and curve all over for strikes and I was very pleased with how he pitched. We talked before the seventh inning that it was his game to win or lose. He pitched well enough to earn it. He took advantage and did a great job.”
The same could be said of Faulkingham when Shoreline hosted Cheshire for the final game of the series at Valley Regional High School in Deep River on June 28. Faulkingham tossed a four-hitter that Grant called a “masterful performance” with how his hurler changed speeds and effectively worked both sides of the plate. Faulkingham received all the run support he’d need when Shoreline scored the game’s lone run in the third inning. Third baseman Nash Eppard drew a walk, Mastroianni doubled, and then Antonson singled in Eppard to account for the 1-0 margin.
Earlier in the week, Shoreline lost three games against Middletown, which is in fourth place in Zone 3 at 7-4. The squad took defeats of 2-0 and 10-0 in a doubleheader at Palmer Field on June 24 and then dropped an 11-1 contest at home two days later. Faulkingham pitched a complete game in which he allowed just five hits for the doubleheader opener and Eppard took the loss in the nightcap. Westbrook’s Dylan Engels was the losing pitcher in the third game of the series. Meketa, Henry, and Gargano had Shoreline’s three hits in that one.
Previously in the season, Shoreline split a doubleheader against non-zone foe Danielson by winning 4-0 and losing 5-3 on June 13, after which Grant’s team was edged in both ends of a double-dip at Berlin by counts of 2-1 and 1-0.
Shoreline’s roster additionally features catcher/designated hitter Ethan Petroka, who just graduated from Valley Regional; along with infielder Ronnie Oldham, who recently graduated from Westbrook.