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Sports

Key At-Bats and Baseball Rallies

Highlights from the week in boys high school sports in north central Connecticut.

Unlike most other sports, baseball will not allow teams to arrange the action to meet their own needs.

The Los Angeles Lakers can arrange things so Kobe Bryant takes the critical shots. In baseball, the key at-bat in a game or a season can fall to anyone. So it was with Fermi, who had lost three games since an Opening Day victory and found itself down 5-0 to Tolland after two innings Wednesday.

The Falcons rallied for two runs and had the bases loaded. If they could have arranged it they would have asked to send Joe Bowker or Trevor Breton to the plate. Instead, the task fell to No. 9 hitter Patrick Bordeau and the senior delivered a game-tying double that not only turned around the game but, perhaps the Falcons season.

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At 2-4, Fermi still has work to do but the gap between 2-4 and 1-5 seems larger than one game. With games against Hartford Public, Bloomfield and Rocky Hill looming, the Falcons have a chance to right their season and make a push for the state tournament, a push that would have been far more difficult without Bordeau’s timely hit.

On the Flip Side

Of course, one team’s resurrection is another team’s devastation. Tolland (3-3) could have had built a nice cushion heading into difficult games against RHAM-Hebron and Rockville.

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But Tolland coach Scott Czerwinski was properly philosophical about the U-turn in fortune. “You have to give them credit,” he told Patch’s Reid Walmark. “We jumped on them early, but they didn’t go away.”

Czerwinski can take comfort in the pop shown by his lineup. If Alex Clifford, Nick Cassarino and Brett Ackerly continue to make this difficult on opposing pitchers, the Eagles can hope to clean up wildness on the mound and erratic fielding (the two are often related) as the weather improves.

Father And Son

More hard luck for E.O. Smith. The Panthers are 1-5 but could easily be 3-3. Their latest misfortune came Friday at the hands of Rockville, which twice rallied from two-run deficits to win in extra innings.

The win was likely more excruciating for Rockville coach Art Wheelock than it was for E.O. Smith. Wheelock’s son Nick is the head coach at E.O. Smith.

Still, Rockville (3-3) needed the win and got critical hits from Chris Watts and Kevin Babcock, as well as Tyler Glidden to earn it. The Rams look ahead at a schedule that includes Bloomfield, Tolland, RHAM, Hartford Public and Fermi and can see a chance to play their way into comfortable position heading into mid-May.

As for E.O. Smith, which early in the season lost a heartbreaker to Manchester in similar fashion to their loss to Rockville, the bats of Dave Keplesky and Craig Hodgins will be instrumental during a stretch that includes Rocky Hill, RHAM, Hartford Public and Fermi…East Catholic is starting to take on the aura of a team that simply knows how to win games. Against Wethersfield on Wednesday, the Eagles managed only five hits and scored its only run on a dropped third strike but that was enough for a 1-0 victory.

East Catholic (5-1) has allowed 13 runs this season, including seven in an opening loss to Southington, which means the Eagles have allowed six runs in their last five games. If the pitching staff, led by Tucker Panciera and Tyler Aprea, continues the stellar work, look for the Eagles to keep winning…An intriguing question will be how teams that went on southern trips, such as Windsor, Enfield and Windsor Locks respond to April temperatures in Connecticut after a week under the Florida sun.

Windsor won four of five games in the South, including a 6-1 victory over South Windsor, which counts toward qualifying for the state tournament.

The trip gave coach Joe Serfass a chance to evaluate his roster and the players a chance to play some pressure-free games but it does present an additional complication. The Warriors (2-2) are at least three games played behind most of the teams that stayed north. This makes for a full schedule even if the traditional April rains relent. Windsor has three games schedule each of the next two weeks.

If rain causes games to stack up on the Windsor schedule it could diminish the impact of senior captain Devin Over, who was spectacular in Orlando, tossing a three-hitter against South Windsor.

Windsor Locks went 1-1 on in Del Ray, Fla., beating Enfield and losing to East Granby. The Raiders are off to a 6-1 start and even their loss was a tidy 4-2 affair that speaks to two good baseball teams playing each other. Whether Casey Vogt will bring his hot bat home is another matter. Still seems worth it, though.

Quick Start

Perhaps the most impressive area team in any sport so far this season has been Somers lacrosse. The Spartans are undefeated and have scored 70 goals in five games while allowing 21.

Zach Thresher, Mike Hanna, Dan McDonald and Neil Cardwell have been offensive mainstays while Don Whittle, Sean Tynan and Ken Vollaro provided additional scoring. Goalie Dan Bell has kept the ball out of the net.

The Spartans 17-3 victory over Suffield Thursday illustrated how good they might be. Suffield, led by James Conway, Cory Allen and Adam Holmes, among others, came in 5-1. The Wildcats only loss was to Hall-West Hartford.

Bottom line, Suffield is a quality team you can look for in the state tournament, which reveals how good Somers might be.

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