Tri-State Tid-bits

Brass City Brew Fundraiser
Play Pro pick’em Yahoo Football… $20 per entry ($10 yahoo fee and $10 donation to Brass City Brew). For more info contact head coach Sam Sirica 203-560-2323.
 
     
Former Wolcott Scrapper and 2008 Tri-State All-star Pierre lepage just came off his first full season in the cape and the blog for the cape has him listed as the 3rd pro-prospect at 2nd base…..here’s a little write up from the blog. Notice how the word “scrappiest” comes into play…
  
3. Pierre LePage, Bourne/UConn. Bats R/Throws R. 5’7″ 157. Wolcott, Conn.
2009 Cape League Regular Season Stats: .308 BA/0 HR/14 RBI/.753 OPS/17 SB
 
LePage gets more out of his talent than any other player in the Cape League and he was by far the scrappiest, most hard-nosed player out there. No matter how much I wanted to leave him off this list because of his size and how awkward he looks sometimes on the field, his excellent performance all summer just made him impossible to ignore. LePage is the ultimate contact hitter and he very rarely struck out. He is never going to hit for power but he has very quick hands and would do whatever he could to put the ball in play. He uses his 4.1 second speed down to first base to make things happen on the basepaths. LePage has good pitch recognition and can use the whole field. Defensively he has very good range and is a smart player who often makes good decisions. He is unafraid to dive or leap or do whatever he needs to do to make a play. LePage is just the type of player you want to have in your organization.
 
        
Bristol Press 8/18/09
When the Bristol Merchants walked off the field this past weekend with the Greater Hartford Twilight Baseball League championship by their side, it marked the end of the local summer baseball scene. The sound of the crack of the bat which filled the Muzzy Field air has now gone silent and the teams’ road trips around the state have come to an end. The 300 or so day wait for summer baseball to resume is now all that lies ahead. But that wait can undoubtedly be filled with chatter of what was a successful season for each of the Mum City’s nine.
  
The Bristol squads from the four leagues (Twilight, Tri-State, American Legion and Jaycee-TD Banknorth) combined to win 73 regular season games. Together they posted an astronomical .856 winning percentage, snatched three regular season titles and one postseason championship. The Merchants became champions not once, but twice. Bristol’s Twilight League squad won the regular season crown as well as the League’s playoff title. The Merchants went 22-5 in the regular season, bettering People’s United of Hartford by two games in the standings to capture the title and went 4-1 in the postseason to take home its fourth playoff championship in the past six years.
  
The future always seems bright for the boys of Bristol American Legion. After finishing the 2009 season a few wins short of achieving its ultimate goal and adding to its long list of State Championships, its 2009 season undoubtedly groomed even more success in the future as the newcomers to the squad got a taste of the winning tradition that goes along with Post 2. Bristol was able to win 25 of its 26 Zone games and conquer Zone 1 by one of its widest margins in recent memory. Simsbury finished in second, six games behind Post 2. With a .962 wining percentage, Bristol was the No. 2 seed in the State Tournament. It had its pitching staff to thank for a 25-1 record against its Zone foes.
Post 2 combined to toss 12 shutouts. Bristol finished the season with a 27-3 record.
  
Herb’s-Bristol of the Jaycee-TD Banknorth Baseball League had a championship campaign of its own. With a 14-2 record, Herb’s walked away with the West Division crown and found itself as one of the final four teams standing in its state tournament.
 
In their first season of existence, the Bristol Greeners burst onto the Tri-State League scene in impressive fashion. In a league that has seen virtually every newcomer struggle to find any type of success in its first go-around, the Greeners became the exception. Bristol went 12-4, finishing just two games off the pace set by the Brass City Brew and 1/2 game behind Bethlehem for second. In fact, Tri-State Commissioner Eddie Gadomski couldn’t recall a team having a better inaugural season. “This was the most successful inauguration season by a first-year team that I could recall during my 20 years in the league,” Gadomski stated. “First-year teams always struggle in the league. …[Bristol] mastered it very quickly and I’m sure it will be a force to reckon with in future years.”
The Bristol skipper couldn’t have been happier with the way things turned out.
 
“The season was a great success,” player/coach Shawn Mirmina said. “I wasn’t really sure what to expect with it being our first year. A lot of our players had been out of baseball for a few years, so I didn’t know how long it would take for the bats to come around.” The bats did come around, scoring 103 runs in 16 games to support a stellar pitching staff that was headed by the likes of Geoff Pierce, Rich Bianchi, Dan Rosa and Brian Archibald. The Greeners fell in the playoffs, losing to Amenia 9-8. That, Mirmina said, doesn’t take away from what the group was able to accomplish. “To finish third in a league with 17 teams, in your first season, is a big accomplishment,” he said. “…There’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll stick around the top of the standing and will make a run for the championship in the playoffs” in the future.