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07/28/2023 11:42 AMThroughout its campaign, the North Haven Senior American Legion baseball team saw how a motivated mindset, along with a cohesive clubhouse, can propel a squad from the lowest depths of the zone standings into contending to the top of the state for a crown.
After getting out to a slow 0-4 start, Post 76 rebounded nicely and completed a 10-11 record following a five-game win streak to conclude the regular season and finish fourth out of six teams in Zone 2. North Haven then qualified for the State Tournament and first competed in the Northern Division bracket.
As the No. 20 seed, Post 76 first took down 13th-seeded Tri-County by a 9-1 final on July 19 at West Road Field. Then, on July 22, North Haven traveled to Conard High School to battle with 2nd-seeded West Hartford and took a 4-1 defeat. Next, competing in the one-loss bracket of the draw versus Willimantic the next day, Post 76 prevailed 8-4 in a comeback thriller before traveling to take on Waterford on July 24, where North Haven saw its tremendous late-season and postseason run conclude with a 2-0 loss to finish the 2023 campaign 12-13 overall.
“This has been a resilient group,” said Head Coach Mike Busillo. “We started out the year rough and did not play very well; we had a lot of errors. We have had decent pitching all year, but it was not backed up with defense and solid at bats. In states, Braden Golden pitched a solid first game. He went through a stretch of only three runs allowed in
20 innings pitched. Versus West Hartford, Jordan Higgins pitched a really good game, but we let him down on defense and last some balls in the sun. Against Willimantic, it did not look good. We were down 4-2 in the seventh and had a big rally before Ryan Bauman shut the door for us. The guys did not want the season to end and refused to lose.”
The well-seasoned squad aided Post 76 fortunes quite well in traversing the initial choppy waters of the campaign. North Haven took the perfect piecemeal approach and slowly but surely dug out of its early hole for the summer.
“After starting 0-4, we then moved our record to 2-7. It was at a point where we were looking at July 15 [last day of the regular season] and thinking that would be it,” said Busillo. “But we have an older group that is mature and always keeps the faith. They decided to just win one game at a time and see what happened. We had games against Milford and Orange where we had to win a majority of them to make states and only lost one game. Braden pitched a game against Meriden [on July 15], and then Ryan did a great job against Orange. We also swept Meriden to end the year. Things just fell our way.”
It may not have appeared this would be the case a month ago, yet North Haven emerged from the first weekend of postseason play as the lone remaining team from Zone 2. Busillo maintained it was achieved on the backs of the boys and their clutch hitting, coupled with wielding some web gems defensively.
“Minus that 2-7 start, we played as good as anyone in our zone,” said Busillo. “A lot of our guys are back from being on college teams, where maybe they did not get too much playing time or reps, so we had to perhaps shake off rust at the start. We got some timely hitting and solid defense. The guys deserve a lot of credit; they came to play with a good attitude and tried to win the day every day. We were under a lot of pressure to hit our goal and make the playoffs, which speaks a lot to our group.”
The multi-year camaraderie felt throughout the dugout served itself well for Post 76 this summer season, while they fully welcomed additional pieces from surrounding towns. All of the elements came together to form a tremendous team chemistry that pushed North Haven deep into late July.
“I think an advantage this group had is that a majority of the guys have played together growing up, and so the chemistry was never an issue,” said Busillo. “We also have guys from Wallingford that fit in very well, too. The guys have good baseball minds. For us, it was a matter of just playing better and they practiced as much as they could. They just wanted to keep playing, and this was a very motivated group.”
The 2023 North Haven Senior American Legion baseball team roster is comprised of players Alexander Bauman, Ryan Bauman, Luke Blasi, Dan Boudreau, Michael Brandt, Benjamin Busillo, Marco Giaimo, Salvatore Giaimo, Golden, Chris Harger, Higgins, Joshua Mikulski, Derek Mortali, Shaun Murray, Jack Pesta, Tyler Signore, and Christopher Tobin.
2023 North Haven Senior American Legion Baseball
Regular Season Results
June 15: Hamden 12, North Haven 2
June 18: Naugatuck 8, North Haven 1
June 20: Naugatuck 11, North Haven 7
June 21: Orange 11, North Haven 1
June 22: North Haven 5, Orange 0
June 25: Hamden 10, North Haven 0
June 29: Milford 4, North Haven 1
July 1: North Haven 8, Hamden 4
July 1: North Haven 10, Hamden 6
July 5: Naugatuck 6, North Haven 5
July 6: Naugatuck 5, North Haven 3
July 7: Milford 6, North Haven 2
July 8: North Haven 2, Enfield 0
July 9: Stamford 16, North Haven 13
July 10: North Haven 2, Meriden 1
July 11: Orange 14, North Haven 4
July 12: North Haven 9, Milford 5
July 12: North Haven 4, Milford 2
July 13: North Haven 11, Orange 9
July 15: North Haven 13, Meriden 2
July 15: North Haven 4, Meriden 1