Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The video embedded above is the widely discussed panel on opioid abuse, including heroin, in New Canaan. Produced by Channel 79, the video is a great way for those who were unable to attend the packed-house event at Town Hall to catch up. ***

We’re told that the Board of Education on Monday night voted to request an $87,030,631 operating budget for next fiscal year—some $1.5 million less than the superintendent’s original proposed operating budget (as the town will replenish health insurance reserves for this year). The spending plan requires review and approval from the Boards of Selectmen and Finance, and the Town Council. The school board added $35,000 for club sports financial support.

News

Taller Backstops Planned for Softball Field at Waveny

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Town officials have approved a $6,400 contract with a Cross Street company to install new, taller backstops designed to control flying foul balls at the main softball field in Waveny. Known as the “Orchard Field”—on the right as you climb toward the crest of the hill on the main road, off of South Avenue (with the new ingress to the parking lot)—the softball diamond plays host to home varsity games as well as youth competition. The 10-foot-high backstop now in place—first installed in 1988—isn’t high enough to contain the girls’ foul balls, according to Recreation Director Steve Benko. Plans call for the center section to be raised to 18 feet, and the wings to be raised to 10 feet, Benko told the Board of Selectmen at the group’s regular meeting on Dec. 15.

Sports

New Canaan Softball’s Keshin Sisters Commit to University of Virginia

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New Canaan High School softball stars Molly and Rachel Keshin committed to play for the University of Virginia, NewCanaanite.com learned on Tuesday. The twin sisters, currently juniors at NCHS, project to be the first Division 1 softball players in program history provided the commitment—a verbal agreement between school and player—holds up. Given the on and off-field performance of the twins, there’s no reason to believe that it won’t. Molly Keshin, New Canaan’s starting catcher for the past two season, led New Canaan with a .491 batting average as a sophomore in 2015 with team highs in both runs batted in (20) and runs scored (24). She also hit seven triples, tying former New Canaan great Cydney Ventura’s school record, set back in 2012. Keshin played fantastic defense for the Rams at catcher, committing just two errors en route to a .986 fielding percentage.

News

‘I Think It’s Ridiculous’: New Canaan Girl, 10, Ousted from Softball Tournament Because She’s Too Young

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Softball officials ousted a New Canaan girl from a state Little League tournament Tuesday after it emerged that she was too young to qualify officially for 11- and 12-year-old division play. Hours after Carolina Welch, 10, helped lead the New Canaan 12-and-under All Stars to a 13-6 win at Waveny Park against rival Darien, the rising Saxe Middle School sixth-grader received the news that the game itself (where she pitched four dominant innings) would be forfeited as a loss, and that she would be ineligible for the rest of the tournament. “I’m upset because I’ve always played in the summer, so now I don’t get to play in the summer on a team,” Carolina (or ‘Lina,’ as she’s known) said Wednesday evening from the sidelines at Waveny’s Orchard Field, as her teammates battled Darien in this best-of-3 round. The girls had her uniform number 22 drawn in marker on one shoulder, and ‘X’ the Roman numeral for 10 (Lina’s age) on the other. The “Majors” division in which Carolina plays admits 10- to 12-year-old girls for regular season play, but for Little League-sanctioned state tournaments such as the one that started this week, according to the Williamsport, Pa.-based organization’s rules, only 11- and 12-year-old girls can play in this division.

News

‘Win-Win’: 10-10 Draw in Little League Majors Division Softball Final

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Pennyweights New Canaan White 10, TOGS New Canaan Red 10

On Saturday evening June 13, at Waveny Orchard Field, the New Canaan Majors White and Red softball teams faced each other in the winner-take-all championship game of our tri-town Little League playoffs. The White team sponsored by Pennyweights and Red team sponsored by TOGS had competed throughout the spring against each other and teams from Darien and Rowayton, and had finished first and second after a two-week, five-game round robin playoff series. Now it was time for the girls to temporarily put their friendships aside and battle it out for a few hours to win one final game. The Red team got off to a great start, scoring five runs in the top half of the first inning and immediately had the No. 1 seed White needing to play catch up.