Date: Fri 21-Jul-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: TOMW

Illustration: I

Quick Words:

10-Year-Old-LL-All-Stars

Full Text:

Ten-Year-Old LL All Stars

Participate In 3 Tournaments

The town's youngest all-star baseball team, the ten-year-old all-stars, have

been as active as any group this summer, playing in a total of three

tournaments almost simultaneously.

Dating back to the beginning of July, the ten-year-old team, coached by Ray

Craven, has been involved in tournaments in Easton, Naugatuck, and in Newtown.

Newtown led off its tournament trail on a torrid note on July 8, beating

Wilton 12-8 to start off the Easton Tourney.

Newtown was led offensively by Ronnie Isler who turned in a 3-for-3 day which

included two doubles and four RBI. Joe Gantert, Chris Evans, and Tony Willie

all added two hits to the cause.

On the mound, Evans pitched the first two innings, striking out six and not

allowing a base hit. Evans was relieved by John Brundage who pitched two

innings before handing the ball to Kevin Woessner who fired the last two. The

three Newtown hurlers combined for ten strikeouts in the ballgame.

On the following night, Newtown returned to Easton and fell 15-4 to a tough

team from Ridgefield.

Newtown's only hits came from the bats of Isler, Trevor Seferi, Jeremy Graves,

and Chris Sheehan. Sheehan also pitched two hitless innings while splitting

the mound duties with teammates Jason Glander and Tommy Ermini.

While the Newtown bats finally woke back up in the team's next trip to Easton,

the local stars still lost a tight 15-13 leger.

At the plate, Newtown got two hits apiece from Gantert, Dan Murphy, Isler,

Glader, Sheehan, and Brundage, scoring runs in every inning. Murphy and Andrew

Fiscella each scored three times.

Newtown finished the Easton Tournament with a record of 2-2 after closing out

with an 11-7 victory over Westport. Walks to Brundage and Fiscella,

consecutive doubles by Murphy and Glander, and an RBI single by Isler produced

four sixth-inning runs to snap the tie for the locals. Murphy and Glander were

both 2-for-3 in the ballgame.

At the Naugatuck Tournament, where Newtown began play on July 9, the all-stars

got a combined 12 strikeout pitching performance from Graves and Isler as they

bested Shelton American, 4-3.

Newtown scored all four of its runs in the second inning when Isler walked to

lead off, Seferi singled, Mike Forestieri was hit by pitch, Graves reached on

an infield error, and Sheehan mashed a hard double. The two hits in the frame

were, incidentally, Newtown's only two hits in the ballgame, but the solid

defensive effort backed strong pitching and made the runs stand up.

Despited their exciting start, though, the Newtown stars fell on July 14, in

their second-round game against Union City, 7-2.

Newtown's only hits on that night came from Isler (8-11 in the two tournaments

combined), Sheehan, Woessner, and Jim Boccuzzi.