The Bethel/Newtown Junior American Legion Admirals’ baseball team’s season was a big success.  The 17U squad went 23-3 and won Zone 5 of the American Legion program. It was the first time that the Admirals won the zone championship. The Admirals earned the top seed in the first round of the state tournament. Including additional tournaments and playoffs, the team’s overall record was 28-7.

Consisting of 14 players, the Admirals boasted ten Newtown residents. The Newtown players are Adam Beckett, Austin Dignan, Brian Gallagher, Ben Harrison, Will Huegi, Austin Kasbarian, Ryan Kost, Michael Liberante, Robert Lombardo, and Tim VanderHave. The players from Bethel are Kyle Breling, Connor Hartman, Anthony Rodriguez, and Stephen Spinella. Head coach of the team is Newtown’s Tom Harrison from Newtown, and assistants are Rob Lombardo and Dan Spinella.

The teams success was built around its ability to hit and pitch, and defense was the Achilles heel all summer. A team earned run average of slightly less than 2 and a team batting average of .298 were a pair of the reasons that the Admirals were able to claim the zone title.

After winning the zone, the team was the top seed in a four-team double elimination round of the tournament, joining Orange, Wilton, and Wallingford in the south bracket.

Behind the pitching of Austin Kasbarian, the Admirals beat Orange 5-1 in the opener. Huegi and VanderHave both had two hits, and Kasbarian went 4-for-4. Beckett, Spinella, Harrison, Dignan, Gallagher, and Breling all contributed with hits.

The Admirals faced a tough Wilton squad in the second game, and won 2-1 in extra innings behind a walk-off base hit by VanderHave in the bottom of the ninth inning. Breling pitched seven strong innings. VanderHave came in to pitch the last two innings and sat down six consecutive Wilton batters. Coach Harrison noted that Breling and VanderHave both pitched well for the Admirals throughout the season, and were ready to take the mound when called upon.

Wilton eliminated Orange and needed to defeat the Admirals twice to advance. Kasbarian took the mound again and held Wilton to three runs, all in the third inning. The Admirals scored two early runs behind hits by Rodriguez and VanderHave, following a walk and stolen bases by Huegi. In the fifth inning, with Vander Have on third base, Beckett stepped to the plate and hit a long sacrifice fly ball to tie the game. In the bottom of the seventh, with two outs, Harrison hit a single and took second base on a wild pitch. VanderHave stepped to the plate and hit a walk-off double to deep left center field to end the game.  

The Admirals moved on to the quarterfinal/ single-elimination round of the state tournament and faced Meriden, which entered the game with a record of 26-3. Meriden scored one unearned run in the top of the fist inning. The Admirals answered when Huegi walked, was moved to third on a single by Brian Gallagher, and then scored on a single by Kasbarian. Meriden put up four more unearned runs in the top of the second on three Admirals errors. The Admirals responded with two runs as Harrison and Spinella, both of whom walked, scored on a long single by Lombardo. The Admirals put up two more in the fifth to tie the game and send it into extra innings.

The defensive highlight of the game came with a Meriden runner on third base in the top of the seventh inning and one out. A hard ground ball was hit to shortstop Hartman’s right. Hartman made a diving stop, got to his feet and threw a strike to the catcher who made the tag out at the plate. Meriden scored two in the top of the eighth inning on two hits and an error for a 7-5 win. Although Kost and Hartman were reached base in the bottom of the eighth, the team was not able to get the hit needed to tie the game.

Although the final loss was a tough one, it was a great season, Coach Harrison acknowledged. “We had a lot of come-from-behind wins which showed that the boys had a lot of character and never gave up,” he said.