Despite decent weather in early April, Week #1 of the HSSL was wiped out due to unplayable fields. As we know, these fields are pretty much unplayable all season long, but with a new season, renewed hope abounds (farting sound…) Well, the extra week did not help with field preparation as our Park & Rec Dept had more pressing concerns than field preparation in April so we missed out on the grudge match between Braggville vs Brentwood. You may remember at last year’s yr-end banquet, the Championship trophy disappeared from the Braggville table. Well, 8 months later the trophy was returned and, thanks to some sleuth investigative work by Braggville OF Ted Mottor, it appears Brentwood was behind the theft. As luck would have it, the teams were slated to play opening day. But, thanks to Town inefficiencies, we were denied this game. Anyway, on to the Week 2 games:
Week 2:
Kampersal downed Lions, 9-1 behind a Kampersal-combined 3 hitter (George K Jr., 3 inn 2 hits, followed by Tom K who went 3 innings giving up 1 hit and then closer Alex K pitched a 1-2-3 7th to nail down the win. Offensively, Kampersal was led by 2B Mike Defazio and C Brian McShane who each had 2 hits and 2 RBI. Star LF Chris Boggess was in attendance but remains out indefinitely with a back injury but that didn’t stop him from dressing up like an LL Bean model.
Mudville’s two young free agent acquisitions yielded immediate results as they were shut out, 12-0 by Anthony’s. P Alan Lisak went the distance for Anthony’s giving up just 4 hits while 1B Chris Landers, looking to improve upon a dreadful 2021 season, had 3 hits and 2 RBI in the win. Mudville skipper, Eric Kuharich has high hopes for this young pair so, we’ll see what the coming weeks bring, hopefully a run or two.
A 15-run 5th propelled Dalton Rd to an 19-10 win over The Hood as a re-energized Steve Cotto had 4 hits, scored 4 times, and shined defensively. In what could be a HSSL first, a father-son scenario is playing out on Dalton as Mitch Cotto joins the Dalton roster this year, very cool. Steve, in an attempt to show his son ‘how it’s done’ looked to make a diving catch in leftfield with 2 on and 2-out in the 3rd but came up a bit short. Luckily, CF Jack Kober backed him up on the play and limited the batter to a single.
DYR cruised past the new look KingZ (old Queens), 11-3 behind 1B Dave Randlett’s 2 hits and 3 RBI and RF Ken Szajda’s 3 hits. But the real story of the game was deciding which was worse, their new jerseys or name choice. Post-game at Anthony’s it was split 50-50. Need to fire the director of marketing ASAP!!
Jasper Rock upended Brentwood, 14-8 behind the bats of 3B Doug Herman and OF Jeremy ‘the fastest CPA in MA’ Cordon. Herman had 3 hits and 3 RBI while Cordon’s 3-run homer in a 9-run 2nd paced Jasper. Brentwood may not win enough games to get into the ‘A’ Div this year, but they won the uniform upgrade battle vs Kingz (I can’t believe I’m typing that ‘z’- I may just go back to calling them Queens) and Johnson North.
Defending Champ Braggville slipped by Downtown, 4-0 behind wily veteran P Chris Connors’ complete game 4-hit shut-out. Downtown was without the services of All-stars Tim McCarron, Todd Kiley, and Joe Gentile who opted to attend the Jonas Brothers concert in Providence. Teammates (Mike Adams, shh) were none too pleased so, that’s something to keep an eye on as the season progresses.
South edged the kids from Johnson North, 6-3 behind new ‘slim & trim’ SS Steve Lawless’ 3 hits and 5 RBI. Fellow ‘Hard 75’ partner P Bryan Sweeney twirled a gem, holding the kids to just 5 hits. Johnson SS Chris King (future MVP) had 3 doubles and drove in all 3 runs for his squad. The real story of this game was another uniform ‘upgrade’ that was immediately ridiculed by the majority at Anthony’s afterward. Seems they have the same marketing lead as Kingz. Be better, guys….
GAME OF THE WEEK for WK #3 (5/1/22)
Kampersal (1-0) vs Braggville (1-0): @ Stoddard Park #2
- Does 6-time GM of the Year Tom Kampersal finally have the line-up to defeat mighty Braggville?
- Will Braggville awaken from their offensive slumber in wk 2?
- We’ll have a full write up and photos of this game in next week’s write up.
