After going 8-7 in the regular season, the Suffield Juniors (14U) baseball team battled their way into the semi-finals for the Connecticut River Valley Juniors League before losing in a heartbreaker game against Wethersfield. The team, helmed by head coach Ben Amenta and assistant coaches Keith Woods, Mike Tallis, Byran Griggs, and Luke Kettles, played from mid-April to the final game on June 17. The league is made up of teams from Windsor, Wethersfield, Stafford, Cromwell, Ellington, Tolland, Hebron/RHAM, Somers, South Windsor, Coventry, Colchester, and Suffield.
Sufield Juniors baseball team
Front (L to R): Gavin Sepko, Mark Tallis, Aiden Deveno, Alex Schuyler
Back(L to R): Brady woods, Xavier Nieves-Cruz, Graham Marcavitch, Daniel Lewis, Jackson Drewnowski, Gavin Griggs, Michael Rafferty, Dominic Cosmini, Cole Kettles
Missing: Caleb Kendrick, Vincent Covino
The regular season was filled with ups and downs and the .533 win percentage was not reflective of the work the players put in for each of the games. Losses were usually one run heartbreakers – except for a few cases against the strong teams from Stafford and Wethersfield, and a few tangles from Hebron/RHAM. In a case of foreshadowing, Hebron/RHAM would be the team Suffield had to prepare the most for. Most wins were “mercy rule” games against Cromwell, Tolland, Windsor, and Colchester.
Players for the team were Aiden Deveno, Alex Schuyler, Brady Woods, Caleb Kendrick, Cole Kettles, Daniel Lewis, Dominic Cosmini, Gavin Griggs, Gavin Sepko, Graham Marcavitch, Jackson Drewnowski, Mark Tallis, Michael Rafferty, Vincent Covino, and Xavier Nieves-Cruz. On the pitching side, Woods, Cosmini, and Lewis led innings pitched with Kendrick, Kettles, Nieves-Cruz, and Drewnowski all coming in relief. On the batting side, Nieves-Cruz led the team with a .537 batting average and 22 hits on the season. Nieves-Cruz (18), Cole Kettles (12), and Graham Marcavitch (12) lead the team in RBIs (runs batted in). Brady Woods led the team with 20 runs and 17 stolen bases. Kettles (14) and Marcavitch (13) followed closely with stolen bases.
The leadup to the final playoffs was a thrilling finish to the season. Heading into the last few games, the team came together and beat Stafford 2 with a thrilling 17-0 victory which put them in a position to go up against Hebron/RHAM 2, a team which had beaten the Suffield Juniors twice before. The game was a 1-0 affair until the end of the 7th inning (a full game at the Little League levels). RHAM pushed a run across on a Suffield throwing error and the team headed into extra innings. Amazingly, this is when the rain clouds opened up. Brady Woods started off the inning with a walk before using his speed to get around the bases to third on successive steals. Caleb Kendrick singled on a hard ground ball to center, allowing Woods to score and breaking the tie. But a one run lead wasn’t going to be enough for the Suffield Juniors. Cole Kettles walked on the next series, while Kendrick used his stealth to steal all the way to third before stealing home on a passed ball to the catcher. The Suffield Juniors were now up 3-1. Having shaken the struggling, rain-soaked Hebron/RHAM pitcher, they substituted a new pitcher only to have Xavier Nieves-Cruz hit a hard shot back to the pitcher, creating a fielder’s choice – scoring Kettles and a 4-1 lead. Dominic Cosmini had pitched the previous six innings, which caused him to sit out due to a pitch count limit. Daniel Lewis came in and, combined with the support of the team, ensured the team would advance to the playoffs. Soaked but ecstatic, Suffield was off to face Wethersfield at the semi-finals in South Windsor.
Wethersfield had given the Suffield team a hard time over the season. This semi-final game had gone into the fourth inning with the Suffield team holding back a strong team that had shown the ability to chase others off the field. Starting the fourth, the score was 9-4. The outfielders worked hard to manage the hard-hitting Wethersfield. Gavin Griggs in left, Graham Marcavitch in center, and Jackson Drewnow- ski in right were able to support the work of the pitching staff. Meanwhile, the infielders were sure-handed and made sure fielding errors were minimized. Additionally, the team was able to score a host of runs on the pitcher, since Wethersfield had kept their top pitcher in reserve.
However, the Wethersfield team was able to chip away at the lead, with Suffield still leading 9-7 through the sixth. Reaching the 7th inning, the Suffield Juniors were feeling anxious about their two-run lead. A bad miscue after a hard-line drive to the outfield from Wethersfield allowed the tying run to cross the plate. One final drive to the outfield from the top of the Wethersfield lineup sealed the deal with one last run coming across the plate, ending the game 10-9.
Wethersfield would go on to lose to Somers, the only undefeated team in the league, in the final championship game, getting shut out 11-0. While our Suffield team would have loved to represent the American League in the Championship game, they along with their coaches and their families are extremely proud of the work they put in throughout the season.