The Ansonia Chargers bowed out of the NVL baseball tournament on Monday night at Nolan Field during a quarterfinal match up against Wolcott by a 6 – 2 margin.
The seventh ranked 12 – 8 Chargers dropped two games during the regular season to the second-ranked 15 – 5 Eagles. The quarterfinal match up was a pitchers duel between Christian Dzienkiewicz and the Eagles Dom Gambino.
Wolcott grabbed an early 2 – 0 lead in the second inning started by back-to-back hits from Matt Meier and Mike Meier. The Eagles went ahead on Tanner Fitzsimons RBI double and a run scoring single off the bat of Greg Jackson.
Dzienkiewicz allowed only three more hits over the next five innings and was aided by a defense that threw two Wolcott runners out at the plate. What Ansonia couldn’t overcome was the offerings of Dom Gambino on the hill for the Eagles.
Julian Sobin cut the deficit at 2 – 1 when he led off the fourth with a single to left.and scored on a ground out by Josh Eannotti.
Gambino went on to spin a three hitter and Wolcott took the door off the hinges with a four run uprising in the fifth that put the game away.
“It wasn’t the best game we’ve played all year,” said a disappointed Ansonia head coach Mike Vacca.
“This is the playoffs and you need to come out with your ‘A’ game and we didn’t do that.”
Wolcott took full advantage of Ansonia mistakes in the fifth with a lead off walk and an error back to the mound. That set the table for disaster as Mike Gigliotti hit a grounder to shortstop and the throw to the plate was off line allowing the run to score.
With two outs Matt Meier unloaded a triple into the right field corner and came around to score on the overthrow for a commanding 6 – 1 advantage.
Ansonia tried to close the gap but getting only three hits didn’t serve the purpose as they settled for one run in the sixth closing the deficit at 6 – 2. Christian Sobin drew a lead off walk, Dzienkiewicz worked out a walk and Julian Sobin ended up with a free pass on four pitches off the plate.
With the bases loaded and no outs Orlando Morales smashed a ball down the line at third and the ensuing double play forced home a run. That would be the final tally for the Chargers offense as Wolcott advances to the semi-finals held at Municipal Stadium in Waterbury on Tuesday.