By Tim Parry

STRATFORD - There have been several spectacular pitching performances at DeLuca Field this summer. But for the first time, the dominant pitcher was in the visiting dugout.

That was Jennie Finch. The Team USA softball pitcher.

Finch fired a one-hitter, struck out 12, and walked just one to lead Team USA over the Stratford Brakettes 9-0 Sunday.

Finch did not allow a hit through seven innings, and gave up a one-out single to extra player Laura Trout with one out in the eighth. Brakettes shortstop Mandie Fishback, who took a bad hop to the head a night earlier and was sent to the hospital, played the game and walked in the first inning.

The Brakettes had been 40-0 prior to the game, but did not show any signs of anguish after the game, snapping photos of themselves and with members of Team USA prior to a post game autograph session.

“I’ve seen all the great players come through here, and just to have the opportunity to be on the field with them at the same time is truly an honor,” said Brakettes right fielder Amber Radomski, a Joel Barlow graduate who grew up as a bat girl for the 28-time ASA champions.

Current Masuk star Rachele Fico, who was charged with five earned runs which pitching the ninth inning, had the same feelings as Radomski after the game.

“It was just an awesome experience to throw against the greatest hitters in the world, and by far Team USA does have the greatest hitters in the world,” Fico said. “It was just awesome and so much fun to be out there.”

The game was a tune-up for Team USA, which is on the KFC Bound 4 Beijing Tour in preparation for the Olympics. The announced attendance at DeLuca was 3,300, which included fans seating in temporary bleachers set up behind the outfield fences.

By Tim Parry
It’s true, the summertime is a busy season in Fairfield County. If you’re not hitting a movie or a dining (or drinking) establishment, it’s a Bluefish game. And the malls, the summer concert series’ can get in the way, as do the Yankees, Mets, and Red Sox, whether live or on the screen.

And they all are fighting for your hard-earned dollar. Or to keep that paycheck in your bank account.

But one of the oldest sports traditions in Fairfield County is also one of the most obscure to those who aren’t softball purists. That would be the 61-year-old Stratford Brakettes.

The days of when thousands of fans would circle either Raybestos Memorial Field or Frank DeLuca Hall of Fame Field on a nightly basis have passed. But if you want to see some of the most talented fast-pitch players take the field, then there’s no reason to pass the 27-time ASA champion Brakettes by.

Here’s 10 reasons to catch a Brakettes game (or two) this summer:

1. Double-headers (almost) every night: Where else can you get twice the bang for your buck these days?
2. Free parking: And on top of that, an easy shot off I-95 once you reach the Lordship and Sikorski areas. Traffic is not a problem.
3. Don Zimmer’s granddaughter: Really, she’s a Brakette. Whitney Mollica, number 23 on your scorecard. And the first baseman is batting well over .500 with five homers on the season. In the Tampa Bay area, though, Zimmer is known as Whitney’s grampa.
4. A local connection: Amber Radomski once dominated the field at Joel Barlow, now she is living her lifelong dream of being a Brakette. She’s a role model local kids can look up to, and proof that any goal can be achieved with hard work.
5. Your new local hero: Rachele Fico, the Oxford resident and Masuk pitching star, will make her Brakettes debut on Sunday. Last time I talked with her she was heading to Florida to play for a premiere U18 team, so skip Sunday dinner and check her out.
6. Fico’s future teammate: Third baseman Jessica Mouse just completed her freshman year at Louisiana State University, where Fico will be starting in the fall of 2009. And she’s proven why LSU attracts some of the best players in the nation.
7. Olympians: OK, two current Brakettes just missed out on making it to the last-ever Olympic competition. Leslie Malerich, who is riding a hot streak on the mound right now, is a member of the Italy national team, and Jenna Lopez’s Puerto Rico team missed qualifying for Bejing, losing to Venezuela in the qualification round finals.
8. And more Olympians: Sunday, July 20, Team USA comes to town for a one-game match-up with the Brakettes. We’re talking Jennie Finch and Lisa Fernandez, folks, right here in our backyard.
9. Legendary coach John Stratton: For those keeping score at home, the Friday night sweep against the Stratford Seahawks gave Stratton a 654-89 career record. This is his 30th season as a coach with the Brakettes, and his 12th as the manager.
10. Good eats: What’s a ballgame without a good concession stand? A horrible experience, that’s what. Best fries in Stratford, plus no need to break the bank to feed a family of four.

So there you have it. If you don’t believe me, here’s a link to the Brakettes schedule. Come on out and give me more reasons to hit the field.

Six years after being drafted in the third round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Atlanta Braves, former Joel Barlow righty Charlie Morton is going to the big show.

The injury-depleted Braves announced they will call Morton up from AAA Richmond in time to start the game Saturday against the Angels in Anaheim.

Morton, who is 5-2 and has the second-best ERA (2.05) in the International League, will take Tom Glavine’s spot in the rotation. Glavine suffered an elbow injury Tuesday night against the Chicago Cubs and was placed on the DL.

Morton spent much of 2007 pitching out of Double-A Mississippi’s bullpen after working primarily as a starter in his first five pro seasons. He moved back to the rotation late in the year and led the Mississippi to its lone win in the Southern League playoffs.

He followed that with an excellent stint in the Arizona Fall League with Peoria (4-1 2.57 in six games) and was added to Atlanta’s 40-man major league roster.

Morton’s curveball was rated the best in the Atlanta system in 2005 by Baseball America.

But he also spent five seasons playing Class A ball, and was close to being considered a classic draft bust. Click here and read this column by Clarion-Ledger columnist Rick Cleveland.

Spring is here. The flowers have bloomed, it’s finally warm out… and some high school football players are spending their Sunday evenings indoors. What gives?

It’s the second mini-season of Elite Passing Academy spring passing league at Trumbull Sports Zone. Not every high school football player is here, mind you. But of the 18 teams in the league, 10 are from Fairfield County.

And it’s sort of a lineman-free zone. Yes, that’s a center snapping the ball, but the rest of the offenses consist of the quarterback, receivers and running backs. But if you are a team that is committed to passing the ball, leagues and tournaments like Elite Passing Academy’s have become a necessary offseason evil.

In short, it’s 7 on 7 football.

“It’s great repetition for all the skill athletes,” says Buff Bowen, co-founder of Elite Passing Academy. “It’s a great opportunity for all the teams to run their spread offenses and give plenty of kids reps, the starters and the back-ups.”

So who is there? Fairfield Ludlowe is still without a head coach, but New Canaan did double duty in Week one, this past Sunday, and played its scheduled game, too. Fairfield Warde is in, so is Darien, McMahon, Trumbull, Fairfield Prep, Notre Dame-Fairfield, Masuk, and Barlow.

And notables from outside the county include Foran, led by hot prospect quarterback Jake White, Woodland, Ansonia (yes, they’re throwing the ball in the Valley!), and Jack Cochran’s Whalers of New London. The Whalers are led by soon-to-be-senior quarterback Jordan Reed, who is being as heavily recruited as White.

Have passing leagues proven to help develop offenses? You can ask New Canaan. Head coach Lou Marinelli’s son, Trinity College player John Marinelli, was not there Sunday due to school commitments, but has tutored the Rams offense during the offseason.

“What 7 on 7 does is take the throwing with your quarterback and receivers to another level,” John Marinelli says. “It’s all about competition and putting the kids in a lot of different situations and see how they react.”

And it certainly helped Rams quarterback Charlie Westfal in the second half of the CIAC Class MM championship game against Hand. Westfal threw for 375 yards as New Canaan came back from a 30-13 deficit late in the third quarter to win 34-30.

The younger Marinelli was on the sidelines for that game, and says he didn’t have much to say to Westfal during the comeback.

“But what I told him was that he’s been in these situations before. Don’t panic, go through your reads and go out and let the ball fly. Just like in 7 on 7, slow down and pick them a part,” Marinelli says. “For a quarterback 7 on 7 slows down the game and gives him the ability to read defenses and pick up coverage’s. Charlie will be the first to tell you that he learned more from that experience than any film session.”

And it’s also helped develop defenses. Will Tom Brockett’s Ansonia Chargers really run the spread offense this season? Maybe not, but by doing the 7 on 7s, Marinelli says it will help prepare Ansonia for its games against Woodland and other NVL teams with vertical offenses.

Ansonia did show it’s got great cover men on defense, leading all teams with 5 “sacks” in the first week. A sack is registered when the opposing offense cannot find an open receiver in a set amount of seconds.

One warning though: Passing league success does not always translate into on-the-field championships. Last spring, Harding was one of the more dominant offenses in the Elita Passing Academy’s league, but went 0-10 in FCIAC play.

Simply put, Harding’s line and skill players did not mesh together in the regular season.

“It’s not a guarantee of success, but it does definitely benefit offenses,” Bowen says. “For teams who throw the ball, it’s a must.”

The league runs Sundays through May 18.

Thirty of Fairfield County’s finest football-playing scholar-athletes were honored April 10 by the Ralph DeSantis chapter of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame. Also honored at the dinner at Continental Manor in Norwalk were the head and assistant coaches of the year in the SWC and FCIAC, as well as two officials of the year.

Three players received $500 scholarships to be used towards their college education as well: William Bass (Bassick), Richard Holmes (Danbury), and Chris Payne (Wilton).

Wilton’s Tim Eagen was introduced as the FCIAC’s coach of the year by his mentor, Tom Fujitani, who he served under as an assistant coach for several years, and thanked his assistant coaches and the Warriors’ booster club for its efforts in helping to build a top-notch program. Ridgefield’s Kevin Callahan introduced one of his former players, New Fairfield’s Andy Buchsbaum, as the SWC’s coach of the year.

Carl Cairo (Greenwich) and John Pereira (Pomperaug) received their league’s respective assistant coach of the year awards.

The scholar-athletes honered were:

• William Bass, Bassick
• Nick Verderosa, Bethel
• Chris Green, Brien McMahon
• Kenneth Cobb, Bridgeport Central
• Steven Moss, Brookfield
• Jeffrey Farrell, Bunnell
• Greg Passineau, Canterbury
• Richard Holmes, Danbury
• George Rhein, Darien
• Matthew O’Laughlin, Fairfield Ludlowe
• Thomas Marx Jr., Fairfield Warde
• Jonathan Meyers, Greenwich
• Scott Hickling, Joel Barlow
• Victor Ciancetta, Masuk
• Chris Lemoine, New Canaan
• Patrick Cassidy, New Fairfield
• Jonathan Henion, New Milford
• Eric Puffer, Newtown
• Cyprian Oyomba, Norwalk
• Patrick Purrell, Notre Dame-Fairfield
• Stephen Barton, Pomperaug
• Tyler Strittmatter, Ridgefield
• Michael Dinihanien, St. Joseph
• Jason Zins, Staples
• Justin Shumyhora, Stratford
• John O’Leary, Trinity Catholic
• Jameson Cherilus, Trumbull
• John Midy, Westhill
• Dylan Hannum, Weston
• Chris Payne, Wilton

Also honored were a few unsung heroes of the game, the referees. Without them, of course, the games wouldn’t count in the standings. Bob Seirup, who has been working with the Fairfield County Football Association for 54 seasons, was honored as its official of the year. Bill Vasutro was the Colonial Football Association’s honoree.