New Canaan Baseball Tops Stratford 11-2 in Class L Opener

With rain pushing the opening game of the CIAC Class L playoffs from Monday to Wednesday—with a potential second round game to follow on Thursday—New Canaan Rams head coach Mitch Hoffman knew pitching would be at a premium. A best-case scenario for New Canaan would be to open up a big lead for pitcher David Giusti, allowing Hoffman to get his ace some much-needed rest for the road ahead. Thankfully for the Rams, Hoffman could not have written a better script himself Wednesday afternoon at Mead Park. Tenth-seeded New Canaan scored five runs in the first inning and added three more in the second en route to an 11-2 win over No. 23 Stratford.

Comeback Kids: Robbie Jones’ Walk-Off HR Gives New Canaan Baseball Extra-Inning Win Over Greenwich

New Canaan sophomore Robbie Jones began the game on the mound for his first start there in his high school career. He finished the game watching the ball sail off his bat and over the right field wall to cap off an extra inning, come-from-behind, 8-7 Rams victory over the Greenwich Cardinals. “In the beginning of the at-bat, I can’t lie, I was a little nervous being in that spot,” Jones told NewCanaanite.com. “But I was still really confident. When I hit that ball I was so pumped.” Also pumped were Jones’ teammates, who mobbed the hero at home plate.

LaPolice and Newlove Stymie McMahon’s Offense in Baseball’s 6-1 Win

 

On a picturesque spring afternoon at Mead Park, the first home game of 2015 for the Rams, a pitcher’s duel occurred. Senior co-captain Alex LaPolice took the hill for the Rams, and after they scored two runs in the bottom of the first, LaPolice made that enough to get the W for New Canaan (3-0; 2-0 FCIAC) over Brien McMahon. “It felt good,” LaPolice told NewCanaanite.com when talking about his outing. “I was getting ahead of kids which was huge. [Felt] really good early on.” LaPolice helped his cause when the Rams put up two runs in the 1st.

One Down, Four to Go: New Canaan Baseball Beats Wethersfield in States Opener

In a game with so many twists, turns and storylines, it only seemed appropriate that it would all boil down to the bat of New Canaan’s Erik Jager. The Rams co-captain has had a tough senior campaign at the plate, with a seemingly endless amount of hard hit baseballs that found leather instead of grass. That would all change today. Jager’s clutch bases-loaded single in the bottom of the ninth inning gave the defending state champion Rams a dramatic 5-4 win over Wethersfield in the first round of the 2014 Class L playoffs. “It feels great,” Jager told NewCanaanite.com.