2017 East Haven Summer Year in Review
The East Haven Senior Legion baseball team won three of its final five regular-season games to sneak into the State Tournament, where the 89ers won a 3-2, 10-inning decision versus Guilford in their first game before getting eliminated with a 1-0 loss to Meriden.
East Haven had qualified for states by going 13-10 in Zone 2 play to finish tied for fourth place with Hamden. The 89ers were the last team in the zone to qualify and did so by winning a tiebreaker versus Hamden. Once East Haven got in, the 14th-seeded 89ers went on the road to defeat No. 11 Guilford by a 3-2 score in 10 innings. With the game tied at 2 in the 10th, Frank Longley hit a sacrifice fly to score Mark Smith with the go-ahead run. The 89ers then took a 2-1 loss to Meriden in their next game to finish the summer with an overall record of 14-11.
East Haven’s offense saw Frank Longley, Nick Kraszewski, and Jake Ferrara all post batting averages of .300 or better for the year. On the hill, Mike Mancuso and Kraszewski both notched records of 5-1, while Jake Ferrara finished the summer with a 3-1 record.
—PJ Foti