Class L baseball: RHAM stifled by impressive Woodstock Academy pitching, falls 5-2

MIDDLETOWN – The RHAM baseball team just couldn’t crack the code that was the left arm of Woodstock Academy ace Brady Ericson, and fell in the Class L title game, 5-2, at Palmer Field Saturday night.After Ericson’s 11th strikeout, the second out in the sixth inning, RHAM first baseman Camden McPeck spoiled his bid for a no-hitter with a single to left field. Ethan Boisvert popped a fly ball to right, which was dropped, and Ericson walked catcher Joey Tyler to load the bases before he was pulled. Smart on the basepaths, McPeck and Boisvert crossed the plate after a passed ball and a throwing error during the next at-bat to end the shutout, but the Raptors couldn’t continue their rally.Riley O’Brien struck out the side in the top half of the seventh to clinch the first-ever state baseball championship for Woodstock Academy.“Hats off to Woodstock, they played a great game,” said RHAM coach Bill Eller, who completed his third-year leading the team. “They threw strikes, they put the ball in play… It’s the first time we’ve been here in 20 years, and just to win all of those games in a row to get here, unbelievable. Unbelievable character from these kids, unbelievable grit.”RHAM, finishing the year 21-4 after earning the No. 3 seed in the Class L bracket, allowed just five total runs through its first four tournament games while outscoring opponents 26-5.Junior left-hander Fayz Baig, who gave up just one run on four hits in the 3-1 quarterfinal win over Brookfield on June 1, started Saturday’s game for the Raptors and nearly got through the first inning unscathed. But a two-out error allowed Ericson to step up to the plate with a runner on.The cleanup hitter and pitcher blasted a ball that cleared everything in right field, a no-doubt home run that gave the Centaurs an early 2-0 lead. Woodstock Academy added another run in the second, but Baig started to settle in. His night, which included five strikeouts and only four hits allowed, ended with one out in the fifth after he gave up a pair of singles. Both of those runners crossed the plate on a blooper to right field two batters later, putting the Centaurs ahead 5-0.“I thought we had, other than the home run, a pop-up that was two-inches over my second baseman’s head that was a huge play in the game,” Eller said of the fifth-inning single that scored two. “Hats off to them, they got seven hits, we got one. They put the ball in play and we didn’t.”Senior Sean Connolly, who threw two complete games with 19 combined strikeouts in the 5-2 second round win over Wethersfield and in Tuesday’s 7-1 semifinal win over Daniel Hand, came on in relief of Baig and kept the Centaurs off the basepaths in the sixth. Shortstop James Bucior made a highlight play fielding a ground ball to his right and firing over to first for the second out of that inning.McPeck’s sixth-inning single stood as RHAM’s only hit of the night.“I couldn’t say more about these guys, there’s nothing I’m gonna be able to say to these guys to make them feel any worse than they do right now,” Eller said. “They’re just resilient.”It was the second-ever appearance in the state title game for RHAM, which used extra innings to beat North Haven, 7-1, in 2004. Woodstock Academy, the tournament’s No. 1 seed coached by Connor Elliott, finished the year 26-2.“A lot of these seniors played for me as sophomores, we won 15, 12 and 21 games now. They set the tone since the beginning,” Eller said. “Big credit to them to lead the way and pave the path for these younger guys to come up, and hopefully we have continued success.”

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