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05/27/2019 12:00 AMThe Haddam-Killingworth baseball team advanced to the Shoreline Conference Tournament final for the first time since 2010 last week. While the Cougars didn’t come away with the title, the gave it everything they had against Portland in an exciting championship game that saw the Highlanders prevail by a 2-1 score in eight innings.
After going 14-5 during the regular season, H-K entered the Shoreline Conference Tournament as the No. 2 seed and posted an 11-4 victory over No. 7 Old Lyme in a quarterfinal matchup. The Cougars followed up that win by defeated No. 3 seed North Branford 4-2 in the semis.
On May 25, H-K traveled to Palmer Field to take on top-seeded Portland with the Shoreline title at stake. The Highlanders went up 1-0 the second inning, before H-K tied the game by scoring a run in the sixth. Portland went on to score the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth inning to get the victory.
Despite the loss, Head Coach Mark Brookes was proud that the Cougars put together a championship-caliber effort against Portland in the conference final.
“I have a checklist of things we do in each game that I look at, and a lot of the time some boxes can’t be checked because we didn’t execute, but I told them after this game that I checked off almost all the boxes,” said Brookes, whose club is 16-6 overall. “Their efforts were very good, and I couldn’t be too critical with anything they did. It happens where you can play really well and still lose.”
Junior Carmelo Rosa got the start for H-K and only allowed two hits in five innings pitched. Sophomore Jimmy McGoey drove in the Cougars’ lone run of the game on a sacrifice fly.
Portland (20-3) plated the game’s first run in the bottom of the second inning and held on to the its 1-0 edge until the sixth, when H-K loaded the bases with nobody out. McGoey hit a fly ball to left field that brought home senior captain Jon Civiello from third base to make it a 1-1 game.
Neither side was able to score another run in the sixth or the seventh innings, sending the game to extras. Portland kept H-K off the board in the top half of the eighth and then scored a run on a one-out hit in the bottom half for the walk-off win.
Previously, in the quarterfinals, the Cougars earned an 11-4 victory versus Old Lyme. The game got underway on May 20 and was completed the next day due to rain with the score tied at 4. Sophomore Luke DiMauro had the big hit in the game by clubbing a three-run double in the fifth inning. Junior Sam Erskine had three hits and three RBI. Sophomore Alden Halfinger earned the win for H-K by giving up just one hit in 2.1 scoreless innings of relief.
On May 22, H-K notched a 4-2 victory against North Branford in a semifinal contest. Civiello allowed just two hits to get the win and improve to 7-0 on the season. Sophomore Alec Erskine hit a key two-run single in the fifth inning that gave the Cougars a 4-0 lead. North Branford cut the gap in half on a two-run single in the sixth, but was unable to complete the comeback.
“Against Old Lyme, we swung the bat really well and took the pressure off of Alden,” Coach Brookes said. “Against North Branford, we did a great job of executing offensive plays to get two big runs in the fifth. We defeated two teams that weren’t easy to beat to get to the final.”
Prior to the game, it was announced that several of H-K’s athletes earned All-Shoreline Conference honors this year. Jon Civiello made the First Team, while fellow senior Mike O’Toole made the Second Team with senior Griffin Izzo and Alec Erskine.