Housatonic Valley makes run in tournament

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The Housatonic Valley Senior Babe Ruth All-Stars came within one game of reaching the state finals for the fourth consecutive season.

The District 3 all-stars, comprised of league teams from Naugatuck, Shelton and Seymour, competed in the Senior Babe Ruth state tournament held at Cubeta Stadium in Stamford.

Housatonic Valley, under the direction of head coach Bob Neth Sr., had won the last two state championships and advanced to the semifinals of the New England regional.

“There are seven teams in District 3,” Neth said. “We conclude our regular season that runs through July and then we have our league tournament in August. I thought we had a pretty good shot at repeating this season but we did lose a couple of real good bats from last year. We had a lot more speed on the bases this season and a stronger pitching staff, but we did miss a few timely hits.”

Housatonic Valley defeated Simsbury, 5-4, last Wednesday to advance in the winners bracket. Erich Broadrich and Billy Tiscia represented the Naugatuck team for the Housatonic All-Stars with Luke Dippipo throwing a complete-game effort on the hill as the locals plated the winning run in their last at-bat.

Tyler Spinelli (two hits, two RBI) drove in the game-winner on a hit that scored Frank Frosceno in the bottom of the seventh. Chad Cahoon also drove in a run with a single.

The following game dropped Housatonic Valley into the losers bracket of the double-elimination tournament as it suffered a 2-0 setback to Stamford. Tom McIntosh scattered 10 hits, striking out four as he outdueled the Valley’s Dan McCormack, who threw a six-hit, complete-game effort with eight strikeouts.

Tyler Tice, Colin Driscoll and Dan McCue all collected two hits for the Valley. The finals in the losers bracket brought Simsbury and Housatonic Valley together for a rematch last Saturday.

The Valley committed five errors that led to four unearned runs as the locals were eliminated by a 5-1 margin. Tice, Marchello Ursini and Spinelli got the only three hits for Housy.

“I thought we did an excellent job against Stamford but we didn’t capitalize when we had our chances,” Neth said. “We just made too many mistakes against Simsbury in that rematch and we didn’t do enough at the plate, generating only three hits.”

The Naugatuck team of the Housatonic Valley Senior Babe Ruth League was back in action on Sunday and captured a doubleheader victory from Milford. Naugy beat Milford 1, 7-4, in the first game of the twin bill.

Broadrich threw a complete-game five-hitter, striking out five. Josh Deptula had two hits and two RBI with Matt Dowling adding two runs and a base hit. Kevin Ugalde plated a run on a hit and Mike Leona added two hits to pace the Naugatuck attack.

Naugy completed the sweep of the doubleheader, defeating Milford 2, 14-7. Terry Noss Jr. belted two hits and drove in three runs while picking up the win on the mound with 3 2/3 innings of relief, allowing just one hit and striking out nine of 12 batters.

Tiscia had two hits, Ugalde had two hits and drove in two runs, and James Balsys added a two-run single.

Naugatuck improved to 5-7 on Tuesday with a 7-6 win over Waterbury. Dylan Oakes and Noss combined on a five-hitter with nine strikeouts. Tiscia had two more hits and two RBI while noss had a two-run single, Leona chipped in an RBI single, and Kevin McMullen had a double.

Naugatuck returns home to play in league competition Thursday and again Saturday.