By Tim Parry
How long has it been since a Connecticut team reached the Little League World Series? It was 1989, and the star of that Trumbull team, Chris Drury, is now a grizzled veteran in the National Hockey League.
But if the Shelton National Little League 12-year-olds keep playing the way they are, there’s a good chance that 19-year streak will be snapped.
In its opening game Friday in the Eastern Regionals, Shelton National defeated Maine state champion Camden Rockport 12-1 in a mercy-rule game that ended in the bottom of the fourth inning.
It’s the seventh time in 13 tournament games that Shelton National has topped the 10-run mark.
But if Shelton National is going to keep on trucking through the tournament and get a chance to play August 9 for a shot at a trip to Williamsport, it’s going to have to keep playing as a team.
“The top picks up the bottom, the bottom picks up the top. One for all and all for one, one through 12 [players on the roster],” Shelton National manager Ed Szymansky said. “We won’t pick any one kid out. Today it was [Jake Szymansky’s] day in the sun, now it’s back to work.”
But keep in mind these 12-year-old kids are only human. They did struggle coming out of the gate against the Maine batters, though it was ever so slightly. Maine loaded the bases in the top of the first before Shelton National pitcher Rob Moretti got a pair of strikeouts to end the inning.
“I told the kids they were going to be a little nervous at first. Once they’d get the mistakes out of the way, we’d come back and play Shelton baseball.”
Moretti (eight strikeouts in three innings) and Eddie Kochiss (three strikeouts in one inning) dominated on the mound for Shelton National, and the team’s bats were just as impressive. Jake Szymansky and Kochiss both homered, and Szymansky, Tyler Tyce, and Chris Berritto each drove in two runs.
Moretti, Kochiss, Szymansky, and Matt Batten had two hits each to lead the Shelton National attack.
So after the kids take Saturday off and go to Lake Compounce, how does Shelton National prepare for its game Sunday against Williston, Vermont?
They’ll just stick to the basics.
“All they have to do is play fundamental baseball, that’s what wins baseball games,” Ed Szymansky said. “Catch, throw, and hit, everything comes after that. It’s so repetitious it’s like a second nature to these kids.”
