By Hal Levy, Shore Line Newspapers
Special to MaxPreps.com
On a day more fit for playing outdoor ice hockey, the spring sports season opened in Connecticut last Wednesday and the premier baseball match-up was between the teams ranked first and second in the preseason New Haven Register media/coaches poll.
Amity Regional, the defending CIAC Class LL state champs, visited Guilford, the defending Class L titlists. Guilford had beaten Amity, 7-1, for the Southern Connecticut Conference tournament title last spring, ending the Spartans’ 44-game win streak.
This one was a few flawed facts short of a gem. In an untidy and very cold two hours, 51 minutes, Amity won a 15-10 slug-fest. The Spartans scored more runs – eight – off Guilford starter Will Jolin (headed the University of Florida) than he gave up in all of May and June last year.
Jason (Esposito (Vanderbilt) hit a long homer over the fence in center, senior second baseman Chris Migani homered and so did first baseman Anthony Aprile. A two-run single by Fordham-bound Brian Kownacki completed an Amity comeback from a 7-3 deficit to an 8-7 lead and, after Guilford tied it at 8 to take Jolin off the hook for the loss, Aprile’s sixth-inning homer put the Spartans in front for good.
“It was a team effort against one of the better pitchers in our league,” Amity coach Sal Coppola said. “I’m proud of my team. We were facing a great pitcher. Our guys were aggressive at the plate, which was nice because they hadn’t been that way in scrimmages. They set the tone today with the bats.”
“We knew they could hit, but we put them in spots to be aggressive,” Guilford coach Pete Civitello said.
Civitello put his final take on things pretty well: “That,” he said, “was a great reminder of how hard you have to work.”
Guilford bounced back to win its second game, 5-0, over arch-rival Daniel Hand-Madison and Jolin was much better, allowing two hits, striking out seven and tripling to help start a five-run second inning. Amity beat its arch-foe, Cheshire, 8-4, but then lost to Xavier-Middletown, 5-2, in its third game, ending a regular-season streak that stretched back three years without a loss.
Others in the preseason top 10 included Bunnell-Stratford, Seymour, Plainville, Fitch-Groton, Bristol Eastern, Berlin, Pomperaug-Southbury and Xavier.
Some 19 other teams also received at least one vote.
Softball
There was complete unanimity in the Register’s preseason softball poll. Masuk-Monroe, featuring junior pitcher Rachele Fico (verbally committed to LSU), got all 15 first-place votes. The Panthers were 27-1 a year ago and got to avenge that one in their opener, beating Fitch-Groton, 7-1. Fico followed with two shutouts, over Westhill-Stamford, 1-0, and Stamford High, 17-0.
Amity-Woodbridge, led by senior pitcher Lauren Bespuda, was second in the poll, followed by Bristol Eastern, Seymour and Lauralton Hall-Milford.
Southington, Trumbull, Norwich Free Academy, Mercy-Middletown and St. Joseph-Trumbull followed. Mercy opened the season with three straight losses, including one to Amity and another to a North Haven team which might be poised to make a run at the top 10.
Awards
Jim Reynolds, the boys’ basketball coach at Wilbur Cross-New Haven, received the Casman Sportsmanship Award presented by IAABO Board 10 officials at a recent dinner. Tim Kohs, the coach at Mercy-Middletown, got the Canelli Sportsmanship Award, which goes to a girls’ coach.
The Pasquale (Babe) Amendola Award went to Woodland-Beacon Falls athletic director Don Scavone, himself a former official. Honorary membership awards went to former Hillhouse coach Jim Wolf and to the late Bill Gonillo of News Channel 12 in Norwalk. He passed away this past summer.
Hall of Fame Adds Seven
The Wilbur Cross-New Haven athletic Hall of Fame added seven new members recently, including high school All-America basketball player James (Jiggy) Williamson; New England championship swimmer Ralph Battista; three-sport athlete Ron Carbone, who went on to a Connecticut High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame career as a football coach; three-sport stars Alexandra Earl-Givan, Keith McDowell and Steve Sherban, plus football coach Horace Marone, who led the Governors to the 1963 mythical state championship (CIAC state playoffs began in 1976).
