Sports
One is enough as Fleming pitches New Canaan past Hatters

May 9, 2008

Connor Fleming admits he wouldn’t be opposed to pitching in a blowout every now and then — with New Canaan on the strong side, of course — but given how well he performs under pressure, why take a chance?

Fleming needed just one run to beat the Danbury Hatters, 1-0, in Monday’s baseball game at Mead Park. Fleming allowed just two singles, walked two and struck out eight to get the victory, and seemed to enjoy having the slim lead.

“I actually like it because there’s less margin for error and every single pitch has to be perfect,” Fleming, the team captain, said. “I don’t mind, every once in a while, pitching in a blowout and getting a chance to relax, but I like these games where every single pitch has to be exactly where I want it.”

“He was just glad for a run,” coach Aaron Gallo said. “That’s all he needed. We haven’t had many leads, but once we got the lead, I could see it in his eyes that he wasn’t going to give it up.

“The big inning that always seems to affect us, when we have an error or a couple of walks, didn’t happen. Fleming said ‘I’ve had enough.’ If there was a miscue in the field, he said ‘I’ll take care of it myself.’ He put some zeros on the board and we got the win,” the coach added.

Danbury pitcher Anthony Mannuccia took the hard-luck loss after giving up one run in six innings of work. The righthander allowed five hits and three walks while striking out seven.

The game’s only run came in the bottom of the third when Fleming singled with two outs, stole second and scored on an RBI single by Chris Collins.

The victory was the Rams’ fourth this season and they were 4-11 heading into yesterday’s game at Brookfield. Including that contest, New Canaan needed to win four of its final five games in order to qualify for the State tournament.

After Brookfield, the Rams will face Darien (10-6), Harding (0-16), Norwalk (8-7) and Stamford (14-1).

“It seems like all the breaks have gone against us this year and today, we had some bad breaks but we also had some positive breaks,” Gallo said. “We’ve been in a lot of games, so maybe if the ball starts to bounce our way a little bit, we have a shot.”

New Canaan had numerous chances to break Monday’s game open, including in the top of the first when Willie Ouellette drew a leadoff walk and Matt Michalek followed with a single. Fleming ripped a pitch hard but right at second baseman Ian Ratchford, who doubled Ouellette off second.

Collins walked and Zack Swanson was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but Mannuccio struck out Ryan Kilbane to end the threat.

After scoring once in the bottom of the third, the Rams put two on with two out in the fourth as Kilbane singled and stole second and Nick Miloro was hit by a pitch. But Ouellette flew out to left to end that inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, Thomas Mase tripled to centerfield with one out, but Mannuccio struck out Billy Calanca for the second out. Miloro then hit a pitch hard, but again, it was right at a fielder as first baseman Anthony Sabene made the play and stepped on the bag for the final out.

Keeping a second run from scoring fired up the Hatters’ bench, but Fleming quashed the excitement by getting the first batter in the top of the seventh on a groundout.

“The first out is the biggest thing,” Fleming said. “If you can get that first out quickly without anything happening, that helps shut them down. It takes away all of their hope.”

Fleming went 3-0 on the next hitter, Ratchford, but came back with three consecutive called strikes for the K. Mannuccia then nailed Fleming’s final pitch to center, but Collins came in and made a nice sliding catch to end the game.

The seventh inning was the only inning Danbury did not have a baserunner, thanks in large part to five errors committed by the Rams.

In each of the first five innings, the Hatters had a runner as far as second with one out, but each time Fleming worked out of trouble, including in the third, when he struck out the final two batters with a runner at third base.

As for the offense, the one run scored was the Rams’ 28th run in 14 FCIAC games this season. But with eight runners left on base in six innings, New Canaan was at least getting its opportunities.

“We’re starting to hit, we just need to get some timely hits,” Fleming said. “Once we get the timely hits, we should be able to score a few more runs. We had a lot of people on base today and a lot of runners in scoring position, but we hit it right at them. If we keep hitting like that, they’ll start to fall.”