Sports

Wild Wednesday: New Canaan Baseball, Softball Notch Dramatic Wins

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Video by SportsFairfield, New Canaan High School junior Alex LaPolice walk off home run May 21, 2014
[Editor’s Note: The video above is courtesy of SportsFairfield—follow them here on Twitter, covering Fairfield, Trumbull Westport and Wilton.]

In one of the most dramatic days on the diamond in recent memory, the New Canaan Rams baseball and softball teams each pulled off improbable–and important–victories over Trumbull High School Wednesday night. Alex LaPolice’s walkoff grand slam capped off an amazing comeback for New Canaan, who entered the 7th and final inning down 4-0. The Rams seemingly had no answers for Trumbull starter Avery Santos, who went into the seventh inning looking to close out the game having given up just five runs through the first six innings. Santos, however, seemed to suddenly tire in the seventh and lose command of his pitches. Two New Canaan hits, a fielder’s choice, and a hit batter closed the gap to 4-1, loaded the bases and brought the potential winning run to the plate.

Sports

New Canaan Lacrosse Third Grade Roundup: May 19

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As the New Canaan High School varsity team gears up for a defense of their back-to-back FCIAC titles, the youth lacrosse league—New Canaan Lacrosse Association—is in full swing. Here’s a look at some of the action in the third grade division:

North Carolina 5  Duke 4 – North Carolina was able to edge out Duke 5-4 in a very exciting close battle. Ryan Connelly and Cameron Wietfeldt lead the Tar Heels with 2 goals each. Connelly also had 2 assists including the game winning buzzer-beating pass across the crease to Mathew Salmini who scored with 2 seconds left in the game. The Tar-Heels also enjoyed some great all-around gritty defensive play from John Totaro, Andrew Rittenberry, William Webster, and Nathaniel Moor, while the relentless ground ball play of Jerome Roscoe, Hunter Nelson, Holden Busby and Jason Pastushan tilted the possessions in favor of Carolina.

Sports

New Canaan Youth Baseball Roundup: May 18

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Balls were flying and leather was flashing across New Canaan’s diamonds last week as the youth baseball season moved into its third week. The Yankees made some strides in the Majors 70’s league with a pair of impressive wins over neighboring teams from Norwalk. Meanwhile the Orioles and A’s played a classic game at Mellick Field that ended in a deadlock, and the younger Yankees team closed the gap in the AA division. Majors (70’s)

Yankees–8, Village Gourmet–4 ; Yankees–8, George Comfort–3

Jackson LaSusa, Griffin Koch and James Singer each had 2 hits as the South End Yankees beat Norwalk’s Village Gourmet 8-4. Ryan Higgins pitched 2 shutout innings and Jack Ellis pitched the final 4.  The Yankees played the last 4 innings with 8 players and all came together to defend the lead.

Sports

New Canaan Softball Shocks Darien, Solidifies Position in FCIAC

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What a difference a day makes. 24 hours after Tuesday’s potentially devastating 7-5 loss to a sub-.500 Trinity Catholic squad, the New Canaan Rams softball team came back and stunned the FCIAC world Wednesday afternoon at Waveny’s Orchard Field with a dramatic 2-1 upset win over #2 ranked Darien. “That’s softball,” New Canaan head coach Danielle Simoneau told NewCanaanite.com. “That’s why it’s so frustrating when you make careless mistakes because you know you’re better at the game than what we showed. But they came back today and proved we are better than what we showed.”

The game featured two of the best pitchers in the FCIAC and more than lived up to its billing.

News

Town on Soggy, Unplayable Sports Fields: ‘We’re Doing Our Best’

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With a lingering, frosty winter that quickly turned into a very wet spring, New Canaan’s playing fields are unusually soggy and about three weeks behind where they usually are, causing some frustration among youth sports parents and coaches, officials say. Parks Department crews are working diligently to get soccer, baseball and other fields into shape, despite a late clay delivery and hold-ups getting sand that New Canaan had ordered back in February/March, according to First Selectman Rob Mallozzi. “The weather has been tough on my yard, tough on your yard, tough on our fields,” Mallozzi said. “We’re doing our best. We have people getting frustrated with conditions on our fields and our department guys are frustrated, too.