Spartans Blank Cheshire Baseball in Quarter Finals

Thanks in large part to the Brothers Ashworth, the Amity baseball team blanked 5th-seeded Cheshire 5-0 Saturday night in the quarter-finals of the CIAC Class LL tournament at Municipal Stadium in Waterbury. It was the fourth meeting of the season between Amity and Cheshire with the Spartans winning three of those four games. By virtue of that victory over the Rams, the 4th seeded Spartans improved their record to 19-6 and set the stage for a semi-final clash with 17th ranked Newington Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. back at Municipal Stadium.

Senior hurler E.J. Ashworth (who tossed a perfect game against South Windsor in his previous start) blanked Cheshire on just four hits, struck out  six, did not walk a batter, and upped his record to 8-3. He has now compiled a string of 14 scoreless innings during which he has allowed only those four hits and not handed out a single free pass.

According to Amity Coach Sal Coppola, “E.J. has pitched great for us all year. He had an off day in the Southern Connecticut Conference Tournament when Cheshire beat him 6-2. He had an off-day in the game. Everybody is entitled to an off-day.

That loss wasn’t just his fault. Sure, Cheshire had 16 hits, but we made a few errors too. Without the errors, Cheshire probably gets only 8-9 hits. I think the perfect game has given E.J. a lot of confidence. It’s interesting to note that after the perfect game, EJ told me that he didn’t think he had his best stuff.  Against Cheshire, he was really on and had every pitch working for him.  That was the best I’ve seen him throw in a long while. As the game went on, he literally sucked the life out of them.”
Amity got all the offense it would need in the bottom of the second inning.

Ted Ballou spanked a lead-off single into left field. Ram hurler Dom Severino (who was 4-0, the winning pitcher in his team’s 6-2 win over Amity, and in its 14-0 romp past Fairfield Prep in the SCC Finals) walked Brian Speer. Adam Kyasky’s sacrifice bunt moved both runners up a base. With two outs, sophomore first baseman Justin Ashworth stepped up to bat. He swung and missed two pitches. Coppola, who was coaching third base, reminded Ashworth to use his eyes sand get good looks at Severino’s pitches. That advise obviously paid off as Ashworth hopped on then next pitch and ripped a laser shot down the left field line and into the corner.

Both runners scooted home as Ashworth pulled into third base with his first triple of the season.

“I knew that Justin hadn’t hit Cheshire pitching well earlier in the season, but he really hit that ball well. It was an awesome clutch hit for us. I had just told him to see the ball to the bat and to take better swings. I added that his last two swings weren’t his best swings and that he had to swing like he is capable of doing,” Coppola said. “Justin isn’t really a power pull hitter. He usually drives the ball to center and right center field. This was a huge at bat for him as he fought back from an 0-2 count to really rip the ball into left field.”

After stranding two runners in the bottom of the third inning, Amity went right back on the attack in the bottom of the fourth inning. Brian Speer led off with a hopper that was mishandled by Cheshire third baseman Jordan Kubilius. Kyasky followed with a single and Paul Gusmano bunted both runners into scoring position. Ashworth struck out but Grayson Amaroso, the 9th batter in the Amity line-up, whacked an RBI single into left center field. Speer scored easily and the umpires also waved home Kyasky, ruling the Kubilius had interfered with his progress rounding third base.

Now trailing 4-0, things soon went from bad to worse for Severino as he unloaded a wild pitch that sent Amoroso over to third base. Keith Klebart quickly made the Rams pay for their mistakes as he bashed a base hit that drove Amorso home.
Coppola said, “Those were two huge clutch hits by our 8th (Ashworth)   and 9th   (Klebart) batters. I think Klebart’s single (which gave Amity a 5-0 lead) totally demoralized Cheshire. I think at that point, they knew that they weren’t coming back. Our guys were fired up throughout the game. Every time we scored, all the guys on the bench sprinted out of the dugout to the field to congratulate the guy who had just scored.”

In the top of the seventh inning, Conor David (who will be going with teammate Max Slade to UConn in the fall) led off by slapping his second base hit of the game. He was quickly erased when Kubilius banged into a double play. Shortly thereafter, Ashworth ended the game by getting Matt Jefferies to loft a soft fly ball into center field that Amoroso easily gobbled up.

Coppla noted that Severino (who is off to Central Connecticut in September) and shortstop Greg Leonetti  had roughed up Amity pitching in past games
but insisted that Ashworth had handled them very effectively this time.  He also acknowledged that he and Cheshire Coach Bill Mrowka both are teachers and good friends at Wolcott High School.

He said, “We are close buddies. We wished each other good luck but also knew one of us was going home disappointed tonight. Bill’s a really good guy. I felt that if we couldn’t win the state championship, I wanted Cheshire to do it.”

The Rams ended their season with a 20-6 record.