NAUGATUCK — Brown Roofing defeated Sibby’s Automotive last week in a best-of-three series to claim the Naugatuck Babe Ruth championship.
Brown Roofing beat Sibbys last Thursday, 6-1, to win the second game of the series. The day before, Brown won the first game 11-7.
Both wins came thanks to huge first innings offensively.
In game one, Brown jumped off to an 8-0 lead after the first. After a strikeout to start the bottom half of the inning, the next seven batters for Brown reached base, partly because of errors. Sibby’s made three errors in the inning, which allowed for only three of the eight runs to be earned by starting pitcher, Zach Royka. Of the six hits in the inning, the two biggest came from Zack Koslowsky and Jeremy Glass, who both had two-RBI singles.
Sibby’s kept their heads up and came right back in the second inning with four runs to cut the lead in half. Zach Mathieu, who went 3-4, had a big two-RBI single in the inning.
While Sibby’s scored two more in the sixth and one more in the seventh, Brown matched both of those innings to hold on for the 11-7 win. Brown coach Dave Falzone, said that first inning was huge in the victory.
“If you take away that first inning, it was a 7-3 ball game in their favor the rest of the way,” Falzone said. “If we didn’t score those eight runs in the first, then who knows? It could have been a different series.”
Game two brought an almost similar scenario.
Brown started off strong out of the gate again, scoring three runs in the first. Justin Carasone, who was 3-of-4 in game 2 and a homerun shy of the cycle, had an RBI triple in the first. Michael Natkiel and Koslowsky also added RBI singles.
Unlike the first game, however, Sibby’s was shut down almost completely at the plate. Three runs was all Brown starting pitcher Logan Glass needed.
Logan Glass hurled a complete game, allowing just one unearned run, five hits, and one walk. He finished it very strong in the seventh, setting down Sibby’s batters 1-2-3 to capture the title.
Falzone says that the Glass brothers were his go-to guys on the mound all season long.
“Those two are my workhorses,” Falzone said. “They took the brunt of the pitching this year.”
While Logan and Jeremy led the way on the mound, Falzone said his whole team deserved a championship.
“These guys worked hard all year long,” Falzone said. “You got to give it to them.”
