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NH Baseball Plays Way to States

Even though it took the scenic route, the North Haven baseball team will still get a chance to dance with destiny in the Class L State Tournament. That’s because the Indians posted a 1-0 victory at Shelton in their regular season finale on May 27 to earn that crucial eighth win needed to reach the state bracket.

Had North Haven lost to the Gaels, it would have been on the outside looking in, an extremely rare occurrence in program history. Instead, the Indians will begin play in states with a first round game on Monday, June 2 with hopes of advancing all the way to the championship contest on Saturday, June 14. North Haven reached the semifinals last season, but had to win four of its final seven games and two of the last three to make the state tourney this time.

“I think winning this eighth game and getting into the tournament is a big accomplishment for this team based on the amount of adversity we have gone through,” said Coach Muchie Dagliere.

In the Shelton win, Jeff Cunningham tossed his second gem of the home stretch by going the distance on a three-hitter. Cunningham has previously hurled a shutout in another critical victory be stifling Notre Dame-West Haven in a 2-0 triumph on May 19. This time, Cunningham received all the support he’d need when Trent Dillon singled home Mike Kurk in the top of the fourth inning for the game’s lone run. Although his Indians stranded 11 total base runners and eight in the first three innings, Cunningham and the North Haven defense held true and held on for the win.

“We did a poor job with runners on base, but we did a great job on the mound and in the field,” said Dagliere. “Jeff’s last two performances have been tremendous and a major reason why we got wins No. 7 and 8. He has combined to pitch 14 innings, allowing zero runs and only giving up six hits. You can’t ask more than that.”

Previously, North Haven took a 6-2 loss at Xavier on May 23. The Indians went up 2-0 in the third inning when Josh Lopez lashed an RBI single and Pete Katynski scored on a passed ball. North Haven then had the bases loaded with nobody out in the fourth inning, yet could not score a run. Xavier then took advantage of some Indians’ errors to score two runs in each of the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings to claim the win.