Printer Friendly Version - Hand Baseball Loses to Notre Dame in State Quarters; Boys’ Tennis Places 3rd at Class L State Championship

Jake Crawford and the Hand baseball team posted wins over E.O. Smith and Guilford in the first two rounds of the Class L State Tournament, before taking a 7-3 quarterfinal loss against Notre Dame-West Haven on June 1. Photo by Kelley Fryer/The Source

The Hand baseball squad started off the Class L State Tournament by claiming a pair of victories, after which the Tigers took a defeat in the quarterfinal round last week. Hand concluded the 2019 season with a record of 18-7.

On May 29, the 4th-seeded Tigers routed No. 29 seed E.O. Smith by the final margin of 12-2 in the first round of the Class L bracket. The next day, Hand hosted No. 13 Guilford and won an 8-5 decision for its fourth win in four games against the Indians this year. Then on June 1, Hand hosted No. 12 Notre Dame-West Haven in the quarterfinals and dropped a 7-3 decision.

Hand lost East Haven in the first round of the Class L State Tournament to finish at 11-11 this year.

The 17th-seeded Tigers took a 4-3 home loss against No. 16 East Haven in the first round of states on May 29. The Yellowjackets won the game by hitting a walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Hand won its Class M State Tournament opener in convincing fashion, before taking a defeat in the subsequent round. The Tigers netted an overall record of 12-8 on the spring.

Hand was the No. 9 seed in states and started off the draw by posting a 24-0 rout at No. 8 E.O. Smith in first-round action on May 29. Then on June 1, the Tigers took an 18-5 defeat at top-seeded New Farifield in the quarterfinals.

The Tigers lost a first-round contest in the Class M State Tournament last week.

After notching a 16-6 win over No. 16 seed Branford in the qualifying round, No. 17 seed Hand traveled to top-seeded Guilford for a first-round game and dropped a 13-10 decision on May 28. The Tigers finished their campaign with an overall mark of 10-10.

Hand competed in the Class M State Tournament last week and took a first-round defeat.

The 9th-seeded Tigers took a 3-0 (25-23, 26-24, 25-22) loss at No. 8 South Windsor in the first round of states on May 29. Hand finished the year with an overall record of 11-9.

The Tigers took part in last week’s SCC Championship and finished in fifth place.

Hand tallied a score of 422 to place fifth at Hawk’s Landing Country Club. Angelina Balzano finished with a score of 98 to lead the Tigers. Hand’s other golfers at the SCC meet were Bella Larizza (102), Erickson Richard (106), Kennedy Richard (122), and Lucia Balzano (116).

One week after winning its second-straight SCC title, Hand finished in third place at the Class L State Championship last week. The defending champion Tigers scored 20 points while seeing several athletes make nice runs in the singles and doubles tournaments.

For the singles draw, 3rd-seeded Josh Israel defeated Matteo Franco of North Haven 6-0, 6-0 in the first round and then won by default over Kishan Sonpal of E.O. Smith. In the third round, Israel bested No. 13 seed Dylan Koziol of Wilton by a 6-2, 6-0 score. In the quarterfinals, he prevailed 6-2, 6-2 against No. 12 Matt Brand of New Canaan. In the semifinals, Israel lost a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 decision versus top-seeded Michael Karr of Darien.

For doubles, Hand’s 4th-seeded team of Reilly Vejar and Darby Rogers defeated Josh Aresco and Finnian Dowler of Xavier (6-1, 6-0), Newington’s Zachary Palanza and Shihao Zhai (6-0, 6-0), and No. 14 seed Aryan Pal and Andrew Zuo of New Canaan (6-2, 6-3) to reach the quarterfinals, where they posted a 6-3, 6-3 win over No. 6 Ian Kolupaev and Rahul Vallabhajosula of Wilton. Vejar and Rogers lost to New Canaan’s top-seeded team of Luke Crowley and Jack Moore by a 0-6, 7-5, 6-3 score in the semis.

Elsewhere in singles action, No. 11 seed Noah Gulla notched a 6-0, 6-0 shutout against Dan Zhu of South Windsor and then dispatched E.O. Smith’s Henry Willis by a 6-2, 6-1 final. In the third round, Gulla dropped a 6-4, 6-0 decision to No. 5 seed Jason Lee of New Canaan.

Sebastien Lowy defeated Zachary Michael Skrabacz from New London 6-0, 6-1 in the first round and then beat No. 7 seed Alex Kagan of Guilford by a 4-6, 6-2, 10-5 score in second-round action. Lowy took a 6-3, 7-5 loss versus 10th-seeded Matt Fuffo of Xavier in the third round. David Levchenko won a 6-3, 6-1 decision over Newington’s Sean Davis in the first round, before taking a 6-0, 6-0 defeat to top-seeded Nicholas Condos of Wilton in the second round.

Additionally in doubles, Hand’s 10th-seeded team of Nicholas Chieppo and Will deChabert defeated Reza Shahroudi and Daniel Zhou of E.O. Smith (6-0, 6-1) and Wilton’s Ryan Gehrlein and Rushil Jha (6-0, 6-2) prior to a third-round loss against No. 7 Pierson Elliott and Neel Mirani from Farmington (5-7, 6-1, 10-6).

John Van Ostenbridge and James Watkins defeated Rockenson Charles and Giuseppe Conte from New London (6-0, 6-2), after which they took a 6-2, 6-2 loss versus No. 3 seed Conrad Emerson and Henry Murphy of Wilton in the second round.

Russell Powell took first place in the high jump to help the Tigers finish sixth at the Class MM State Championship. Hand scored 41.75 points to place sixth at the meet, which began at Middletown High School on May 29 and was postponed to Willow Brook Park the following day due to rain.

Powell turned in a winning leap of 6 feet-4 inches to defeat second-place Kayvon Negahban of Waterford (6-2) for top honors in the high jump. Powell also finished eighth for the triple jump at 40-5.5.

Dante Zucconi placed fourth in the 3,200-meter run (9:52.19) for the Tigers. Greyson McGeary finished fifth in the 300 intermediate hurdles with a time of 41.41 seconds and also placed eighth in the 110 high hurdles at 15.97. John Genther finished fourth for the shot put (45-5.25) with Colin McCabe following in fifth (45-3). Ameen Parks took sixth place for the 400-meter dash (51.70), while Jonathan Mader tied for seventh in the pole vault by clearing 11-6.

Hand’s 4x400 relay of Besufekad Opstrup, Connor Parthasarthy, Parks, and Paul Odyniec finished fifth (3:28.50), as did the 4x800 relay of Andrew Carone, Odyniec, Opstrup, and Parthasarthy (8:19.92).

Hand finished tied for 18th place with five points scored at the Class L State Championship that was held on May 30 at Middletown High School.

Chloe Thompson came in fifth place for the 800-meter run with a time of 2:21.61 for the Tigers. In the 4x400 relay, Hand’s team of Morgan Combs, Thompson, Chanelle Dortch, and Meryl Sullivan placed eighth by clocking in at 4:16.42.

Jared Kuryan and the Tigers finished with an overall record of 18-7 for a campaign that included an Oronoque Division title, as well as berths in SCCs and states. Photo by Kelley Fryer/The Source