BY KEN MORSE
CITIZEN’S NEWS
Putting together quality at bats is a sure way of igniting your offense.
The Naugy baseball team has been doing just that during a recent stretch of games that ended up in the win column.
Naugy closed out the month of April by coasting to a 10-0 win over Crosby. Damon Abate and Matt Stefan shared the duties on the hill in combining for the shutout. Having depth on the pitching staff has been one of coach Joe Iannotti’s biggest concerns going into the season.
“Things are going really well,” said Iannotti. “We faced a little adversity early on in the season but we are putting together a real solid stretch of games now.”
That depth has shown up in force as of late and helped the Hounds put together a four-game win streak that saw them improve to 10-3. Blake Stone and Andrew Tyszka have been leading the charge on the mound.
In the win over Crosby, it was a six-run uprising in the second inning that put this one in the win column. Jacob Guggino, Alex Teixeira, Aidan Adanosky, Jake Sanchez and Jason Main all had run-scoring hits as Naugy strung together quality at bats to put the game away.
“We are getting hot with the bats,” said Iannotti. “That’s good to get a little momentum going heading into the stretch run of the season.”
The Greyhounds used the same kind of attack in dismantling Kennedy, 12-1, on May 3 in another five inning mercy rule win. Stone went four innings on the mound, surrendering just two hits and no runs while striking out five. At the plate, Stone had three hits, including a double.
Naugy put the game away by exploding for a seven-run fourth inning. Kevin Cestari had the big bat with a run-scoring single and bases-clearing triple. Adanosky, Guggino, Stefan, Abate and Cestari all came through with run-scoring hits during the big inning that put the Eagles away.
“Mike Deitelbaum has been a productive bat in the lineup all season long,” added Iannotti. “And the influence he has behind the plate helping our pitching staff has been invaluable. Blake and Andrew have been giving us some quality innings and some of the younger guys are starting to step up and making a difference.”
Naugy was due for an interesting experience on Tuesday when it was slated to play Derby at Dunkin Park, home of the Double-A Yard Goats, in Hartford.
