Cougars take three of four in weekend doubleheaders
Peter Burgio (Bolton) hit a two-out, two-run triple in the bottom of the fifth to give Manchester Community College (9-8-1) a 3-2 win in a doubleheader split with Suffolk County CC – Selden (16-5) Sunday afternoon in Manchester.
SCCC-Selden scored three times in the top of the seventh in a 4-2 game one victory.
Ryan Carroll (Newington) struck out two batters in the top of the seventh inning of game two in relief of starter Kevin Wodatch (Wallingford) for his first save of the season. Wodatch picked up the win, scattering six hits in with seven strikeouts over six strong innings. Wodatch threw 88 pitches and gave up two runs, one earned.
MCC took a 2-1 lead into the top of the seventh of the first seven inning game, but the Clippers of Suffolk came back with three unearned runs and retired the Cougars of MCC 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning on three grounders to third.
“The first game we were playing not-to-lose instead of playing to win, so we were a little bit tentative on balls where we are normally aggressive with and it came back to bite us,” MCC Head Coach Chris Strahowski said.
Dave Alexander (Torrington) tripled and scored in the first game. The Cougars had just two extra base hits over the four game weekend set – the Alexander and Burgio triples – and hit .207 (19 for 92) as a team over the weekend, but still won three of the four games.
Conversely, the Cougar pitching staff gave up just three earned runs over 28 innings with 21 strikeouts and just four walks. Starters Steve Simon (Middlefield), Dan Nelson (Glastonbury), John White (Rockville) and Wodatch , along with relievers Tyler Wenz (Ogdensburg, NJ) and Carroll, gave up just 23 hits.
“The starting pitching has been fantastic all year,” Strahowski said. “What are we, 17, 18 games in? And we’ve probably had 15 excellent performances out of the starters and hopefully it’s going to continue.”
Juan Bisono (New Britain) was 3 for 3 and scored two runs in the second game and Nick Melino (Cromwell) drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in game one.
****Scheduling note: Wednesday’s double-header vs. CCRI originally slated to be played at Northwest Park has been changed to a single game starting at 4PM at MCC. The Cougars will play ECSU’s sub varsity Tuesday night in Willimantic at 7pm and host UConn @ Avery Point Good Friday afternoon for a pair of games starting at 1PM.
Game 1
SCCC- Selden 4 MCC 2
SCCC 000 001 3 4 6 2
MCC 000 101 x 2 3 2
S: J.R. Lott, Alec Staneck (7) and Thomas Butler; M:John White, Tyler Wenz (6) and A.J Lowers; WP: Stanek LP: Wenz SV: Staneck
Game 2
MCC 3 SCCC-Selden 2
SCCC 000 100 1 2 5 3
MCC 100 020 x 3 6 1
S: Jonathan Hournung, Alec Stanek (6) and Thomas Butler; M:Kevin Wodatch, Ryan Carroll (7) and James McGowan WP: Wodatch LP: Hornung SV: Carroll
Saturday’s recap:
Simon and Nelson Complete as Cougars sweep double header
Bats quiet but Cougars return home with a pair of Region 21 Wins
MANCHESTER, CT – MCC received complete games from Steve Simon and Dan Nelson and beat Northern Essex CC in both games of a double-header Saturday afternoon in Manchester by 4-1 and 1-0 scores.
MCC scored two of its runs in the first game on double steals with Juan Bisono (New Britain) scoring in the first inning and A. J. Lowers (Newington) in the second. James McGowan (South Windsor) and Dave Alexander (Torrington) drove in the other runs as Simon, who retired the first 12 batters he faced, threw 85 pitches in his second consecutive complete game victory. Simon (2-0) struck out six and did not walk a batter over seven innings.
In game two, the Cougars had just two hits off NE’s Syed Ali, and the game was a scoreless tie going into the bottom of the sixth before Alan Fredriksson (Torrington) drove in Bisono with a two-out single. Nelson’s eighth strike out of the game secured the sweep for MCC (8-7-1). Northern Essex drops to 0-10.
Game 1
MCC 4 Northern Essex 1
NE 000 000 1 1 4 0
MCC 310 000 x 4 8 1
NE: Brandon Boucher and Danny Tomasz; M:Steve Simon and A.J Lowers; WP: Simon (2-0) LP: Boucher
Game 2
MCC 1 Northern Essex 0
NE 000 000 0 0 7 1
MCC 000 001 x 1 2 1
NE: Syed Ali and Danny Tomasz; M:Dan Nelson and James Mc Gowan; WP: Nelson (2-1) LP: Ali
