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Hand Baseball Hitting Midseason Stride After Two Strong Wins

After alternating wins and losses for the first six games of the campaign before a two-game losing skid, the Tigers’ baseball team found some consistency this week with a pair of strong victories.

It was a 2-1 week for Hand, as it fell to Fairfield Prep 7-1 on April 22 before rebounding with wins of 8-2 over Hamden on April 24 and 16-0 over Cross on April 25 to bring the Tigers to a 6-5 mark for the season with Hand hitting midseason form.

“Everything is starting to click at the right time,” said Head Coach Travis LaPointe after 11 contests. “We are really starting to play some great baseball. We have put ourselves in position to have a really exciting second half of the year.”

In the loss versus the Jesuits, Brian Anderson pitched well, but gave up four runs in five innings of work. Yet two days later against the Green Dragons, James Powell was dominant on the mound-pitching a complete game and improving his record to 3-2 with only surrendering four hits. Offensively, Kyle Anderson had a triple and two RBI, plus Reed Smith and Powell each had RBI singles. Hand jumped on Hamden in the third inning and opened up a six-run lead to eventually make it 8-0.

“This was the best overall game we played all year,” said LaPointe. “We played great defense, pitched well, and had great at bats all day. It is exciting to watch it all come together; this is really a great group of guys.”

Facing the Governors in the week’s finale, Smith and Evan O'Neil combined on a no-hitter. Smith pitched five innings and struck out seven, while O’Neil pitched the final two innings in relief.  Anderson had a double, triple, and two RBI. Powell smacked two hits including an RBI double, and Kyle Brown had two hits and three RBI.

Needing just two more wins to lock up a Class L State Tournament spot, the Tigers face big tests in the next eight days-including a matchup under the lights with rival Guilford on Wednesday, May 1 at West Haven High School at 7 p.m. and another SCC Hammonasset Division foe in Foran at home on Monday, May 6 at 3:45 p.m. with both squads holding identical 6-5 records.