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09/18/2016 12:00 AMNorth Haven’s U-18 fall baseball team recently began its campaign by posting six victories in as many games. North Haven first swept a doubleheader against DTI of Mystic by winning the first game 8-7 walk-off fashion in extra innings and then taking the nightcap 8-0. The next day, North Haven had another extra-inning, walk-off win when it defeated Southington 9-8. On Sept. 17, North Haven swept a doubleheader from the Bombers Blue by finals of 9-6 and 3-2. The day after that, North Haven moved to 6-0 with a 6-4 win at Branford. North Haven is coached by Tim Binkoski, who was recently named head coach of the Post 76 Senior American Legion team.
In the first game against DTI, North Haven trailed 5-0 after the first inning and was down 7-3 heading to the bottom of the seventh, but scored four times to tie the game, and then won it with a run on a DTI throwing error in the eighth. Pitcher Mark Tantorski settled down after a rough first inning and wound up allowing three earned runs in five innings. Alec Butler tossed two scoreless frames and Brendan Clark got the win by working a scoreless seventh.
Offensively, Nick Perrillie went 4-for-4 with a double and two runs scored; Dom Onofrio was 2-for-2, including a double, to go with a run scored and a RBI; Peyton Farina was 2-for-3 with a double, a triple, a walk, a run, and a RBI; and Kevin Lucey went 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored.
For the 8-0 victory versus DTI, Griffin Bottomley pitched four scoreless innings for the win and Tom Myjak threw the last two. Myjak also went 3-for-3 with a double, a walk, and a RBI. Farina drew four walks and scored a run; Clark went 2-for-3 with a double, drew a walk, scored two runs, and drove home a pair; Lucey was 2-for-3 with a double, two runs scored, and a RBI; and Onofrio went 2-for-3 with a two-bagger and three runs scored.
In the 9-8 victory versus Southington, North Haven was down 6-2, but stormed back to make it a 7-7 ballgame after five innings. Southington went ahead 8-7 in top of eight, only to see North Haven plate a pair in the bottom half for the walk-off win, scoring the winning run on another throwing error by the opposition.
Bottomley, Butler, and Myjak combined for 4.1 innings of solid relief work with Myjak getting the win. At the plate, Clark was 3-for-4 with a walk, four runs scored, and a RBI; Chris Stevens was 3-for-4 with a run and a RBI; Bottomley went 2-for-5 and notched three RBI; Lucey was 2-for-4 with a walk, a run, and a RBI; Farina went 1-for-3, worked a walk, and scored twice; and Onofrio was 1-for-4 with a double, a run scored, plus a pair of RBI.
In the opener of the doubleheader with the Bombers Blue, North Haven again rallied from behind by scoring five in the fifth to turn a 5-4 deficit into a 9-5 lead. The Bombers got a run in the sixth, but it wasn’t enough. Butler and Bottomley combined for 3.1 innings of relief and Bottomley was the winning pitcher with two scoreless frames. Clark scored three runs and had four RBI, including a bases-clearing triple that put the game away, to go with a walk. Onofrio was 3-for-3 with a triple, a walk, three runs scored, and a RBI. Bottomley, Stevens, and Lucey all had two hits and a RBI.
For the nightcap, North Haven took a 3-1 lead in the third on Stevens’s two-run double and held on for the one-run victory. Mark Tantorski scattered 11 hits through six innings for the win with Clark working a scoreless sixth to get the save. Tantorski gave up a leadoff double in the sixth, but Clark came in, and then Lucey threw out the baserunner trying to steal third with Matt Iovanne applying the tag. Onofrio had a single and a RBI to account for North Haven’s other run.
Against Branford, North Haven trailed 4-3 before scoring three in the fourth for the 6-4 win. Trevor MacDonnell pitched a complete game and allowed three earned runs. Nate Zalegowski tripled with two RBI and a run scored, Farina singled twice and scored a run, and Myjak walked twice and scored twice to pace the offense.