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08/25/2014 12:00 AMThe Branford Junior Legion baseball team played to a 23-10 overall record, 18-6 in Zone 2 play before being bounced in the second round of the Southern Division section of the State Tournament by Westport.
Post 83 was defeated 2-0 at home, and held to just three hits in their final game. Head Coach Ryan Santoro wasn’t happy with the offensive effort in the loss, but felt his group still put together a solid season, finishing in second place in Zone 2.
“Like I said, when you don’t score a run, everything else is pretty much irrelevant,” Santoro said of the loss to Westport. “There’s still some disappointment; you look back on things you could’ve done better, maybe things you could have done differently, but overall, the kids had a good year. They won a lot of games, hopefully they got better in the physical part of the game and the mental part of the game, and I’m just hoping that they took something from it.”
Branford raced out to a hot start, winning 11 of its first 12 games before playing about .500 baseball the rest of the way. Things were different this season as the competition in Zone 2 was much stiffer than in past years. Santoro and company had gotten used to putting up big numbers against the rest of the zone, and having the division wrapped up by early July. This year, however, Post 83 finished second, behind Milford, which went 21-3.
“It was clearly different, but it was refreshing because one of the things that we discussed as coaches was that the zone was down in past years. We had to play, win, and earn all of our games and it wasn’t something like we’re going to put 10 or 11 runs on the board and just run through the show,” Santoro said. “It was better to be that way because you attract better players when you’re playing teams that are better, so that was a positive.”
The bats were the weak spot on the squad this season, and it’s what killed them in the end as Branford was shutout in its final game. Its pitching and defense, however, was near perfect throughout the year.
Greg Mahon led the charge on the hill with Tanner Giddings, CJ LeMere, Chris Raynor, Greg Bradshaw, and Dean Gullo also making significant contributions.
“They threw strikes, they challenged hitters, and did a really great job,” Santoro said of this staff. “They did everything we asked of them. Every time they got the ball it was their game. They pitched a lot of innings and they pitched deep into games so there’s really not a whole lot more you can ask for.”
To make things interesting looking ahead, this group will feature a quick turnaround of players as Santoro sees plenty of them moving up to play on the Senior Legion team next season. Many key guys from this season—a majority of whom only played one season for Santoro—will eclipse the age limit to play with the junior squad once again.
“There are a ton of kids that are leaving. If I’m looking at the guys that are coming back, there are maybe four or five,” Santoro said. “We have to go out and find guys that are going to fill out the roster again. I just don’t know the landscape of guys that are out there. We know some names, but for guys that are moving on for whatever reason, there are a lot of spots that we have to fill.”
One thing Santoro did learn to adjust to this season was winning games without hitting the ball. There were some games where Post 83 had more runs than hits, thanks to walks and/or errors, and Santoro felt the guys worked together to manufacture runs and keep them off the board defensively.
“That was a testament to the kids. It’s hard to play in those close games all the time and in a lot of them,” said Santoro, who wanted to thank his assistant coaches and team sponsors. “It does help, because once you’re in the playoffs, those are the types of games that we have. It’s unfortunate, obviously our goal is to win the championship every year, but baseball is a funny game sometimes.”