Simsbury High Baseball Dominates South Windsor in Season Opener

Article written and reported by South Windsor Patch Editor Ted Glanzer

The South Windsor High baseball team opened up the 2013 season with a tough 12-3 loss at home to Simsbury High on a frigid Thursday afternoon.

The Bobcats, who lost 10 players from last year’s state Class LL runner up, showed their inexperience, taking a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first, only to concede 11 consecutive runs to the Trojans.

“We’re a work in progress,” South Windsor head coach Jim Abbott said. “We’re young. Guys are still trying out for spots. I’m seeing a lot of these guys for the first time and I’m going to tinker with the lineup until something works.”

Andrew King, David Caye and Pat Foley each drove in runs for the Bobcats with singles in the bottom of the first inning to take a 3-0 lead.

South Windsor was poised to build on the advantage in the bottom of the second inning, when DJ Linnell led off with a double. The next batter, Nick Nowak, hit a towering drive to center field that was certain to go for extra bases.

But Simsbury center fielder Blair Zentek made an incredible, over-the-shoulder diving catch that was shades of Willie Mays’ iconic grab in 1954.

Linnell had little choice but to trot back to second base, and the would-be rally was effectively quelled.

“I still can’t believe he caught it,” Abbott said. “We could have had a man on second, up 4-0 with our No. 2 hitter up with no outs. Who knows where we could have gone on from there?”

Instead, Trojans starter Andrew Girard settled down and did not allow a hit in the following 4.1 innings, when he was lifted for a reliever in the bottom of the seventh.

Simsbury pulled even with the Bobcats in the top of the third on Girard’s RBI single, an RBI double by Christian Martinez and an error that scored another run.

South Windsor could not capitalize in the bottom of the fourth, failing to advance runners on first and second with no outs.

“A kid failed to get a bunt down and another struck out, and we went quietly in that inning,” Abbott said. “Everything kind of changed that way from there.”
Simsbury’s Craig Gregoire broke the tie in the top of the fifth with a titanic 350-foot home run to left field to give the Trojans a 4-3 lead.

“When he hit the home run, it put a lot of life into them, and took a lot of life out of us,” Abbott said.

Simsbury went on to score five more runs in the inning, including Josh Figueroa’s 2 RBI single, effectively putting the game out of reach.

Simsbury head coach Dave Masters said that it was a gratifying comeback, given how the Trojans last year had a penchant for falling behind early in games and failing to dig themselves out.

“For us, it’s a victory in a lot of senses, because we came back from that and we played solid defense, the pitching settled down and we started pounding the ball,” Masters said. “We feel good about it.”

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