Corina Massey

Editor

        This past Saturday, the Foran Fall  Baseball Team defeated Amity for the league championship 4-2 at the Old Tavern Recreation Facility in Orange. 

        The Lions who ended the regular season 17-4, with their only losses against Amity (3) and West Haven (1), qualified for the playoffs. With a rainout last weekend, the games were rescheduled to Saturday. 

        The first, of two games, was against Jonathan Law. On the mound for Foran was Senior, Tyler Griffin, who pitched a full game to hold to the Lions to a victory with a score of 5-1. 

        Griffin had 14 strikes outs on the mound making it difficult for Law to get runners on base, with Law scoring only one run in the first inning. According to Griffin, “I wanted to give my team a chance to win. I wanted to have fun on the mound, but still, have the winning outcome we wanted. I knew that when I struggled my team was there to back me up.” 

        Griffin could have not done it alone.  One of the big hitters for Foran was Senior, Bryant Wardman, who hit two doubles in the first game with three RBIs. Wardman recalls his performance, “I was an average hitter going into the postseason. So I went into every at-bat like it was my last of the season. I kept hitting and hitting and next thing you know we won the championship.”

        The second game was against Amity. Senior, John Shannon pitched the full seven innings giving up only two hits. According to Shannon, “I thought that it was my best performance of the fall and it was the most important and I think that I felt the best and was the most confident in this game than in any other one.”

        Three of Foran’s four losses came from Amity during the regular season, so there was a lot of pressure on the Lions. Shannon notes, “I had very few nerves because we have played them so many times and I knew each hitter and I knew how to get them. I knew that I had to start out good and if I did that we would be able to get in the groove and dominate.” 

        Early on Senior, Rich Carino laid down a suicide squeeze to score Alex Conte. When Conte touched home he claims, “I was really fired up being able to contribute to my team’s success. Scoring on the suicide squeeze got the scoring going for us and we just kept rolling after that.”  

        Two of Foran’s runs came from a double hit by Senior, Matthew Wooton, which helped secure the Lions’ lead. After winning the game, Wooton states, “To take out a team like Amity is an accomplishment by itself, but to beat them in the championship just made that accomplishment even better.”

        With a period before the regular season begins, there is still time to grow as a team. Griffin states, “I was excited to win and it was our second fall championship in a row. Hopefully, it is a sign of positive things to come in the spring.”