New Canaan's All-Star 12s were among 104 teams that competed this week in a five-day tournament that pitted teams from all over the country against each other in one of largest annual competitions of its kind, held at the Cooperstown Dreams Park in Hartwick, NY.
New Canaan's 12s, dubbed the Cardiac Kids for their penchant for come-from-behind wins, made an impressive showing, winning five of nine games over four days of play before being eliminated Wednesday night after a triple-header that had the boys on the field for seven hours.
Tournament play began on Sunday, June 27, with New Canaan racking up wins against the Kinect Nationals of Ohio (15-3); and the Vipers of Texas (9-8). Sunday standouts included Kyle Levasseur, who launched the first pitch from Kinect pitcher Joe Hyden over the centerfield wall for a lead-off homerun in the first inning; Zachary Allen, who racked up two hits, three runs and five strikeouts in his three innings on the mound against Kinect; and Jimmy Fahey, with two hits, a walk, 3 RBIs and 3 runs scored.
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The Cardiacs, as they became known among the competing teams, carried their Game One momentum into their meeting with the Texas Vipers in the second game of the day. Zack Smith went 4 for 4, with a home run, 3 singles, 3 runs scored, and was the winning pitcher, giving up one earned run on two runs scored; Kane Curtain cranked a 2-run homer over the center-right fence; Kyle Levasseur, who, with runners on first and second with one out, made a spectacular leaping grab of a low liner up the middle and then gunned it to second to beat the runner for the inning-ending double-play. Alex LaPolice went 2 for 3, with a home run, double, and 2 runs scored; and catcher Mike Collins racked up 3 singles in his 3 at-bats.
A Strong Finish
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Wednesday would be New Canaan's final day at Cooperstown, and the boys showed that they weren't too exhausted to come out and play hard, winning two of their three single-elimination contests and beating the Kinston (OH) Bombers 14-0 and the North Gwinnett (GA) Reds 13-6, before succumbing to the DBA Crushers (CA).
Kane Curtain made his All-Star pitching debut and managed to confound the Bombers, who had little luck in getting the ball off the ground. Curtain retired the batters in order in all four innings before New Canaan was declared a run-rule winner in the fourth. Curtain was equally effective on offense, with a two-run homer in the second. New Canaan broke the game open in the second inning, racking up 13 runs on 4 homeruns (Victor Lu, Alex LaPolice, Zack Smith, and Kane Curtain), as well as hits by David Giusti, Mike Collins, Colin Tiller and Justin Clark. LaPolice's 3-run bomb came after the Bombers intentionally walked slugger Zachary Allen.
New Canaan came on strong against the Reds and never let up. Zachary Allen and Victor Lu each hit two home runs in the game -- Allen in the first (3-run) and fifth (2-run); and Lu in the second (2-run) and fifth (3-run).
In true Cardiac Kids tradition, the final game against the Crushers was a nail-biter to the end. Down by 5 heading into the fifth, New Canaan's bats came alive with Colin Tiller, Kyle Levasseur and Zachary Allen each delivering singles in order. Tiller and Levasseur were each thrown out at second, but the bases got loaded on a walk by Alex LaPolice and a base hit by Zack Smith. Justin Clark drew a walk, scoring Allen and prompting a Crushers pitcher change. The new pitcher remained on the mound for exactly four pitches to a patient David Giusti who drew the walk and drove in another run to put the Cardiac's within 4 runs of a win, and prompting another pitcher change. The new pitcher retired the side, and Tiller, working relief for New Canaan, and Gordon Faust, on the mound for the Crushers, kept each side from scoring any additional runs and ending the game at 9-6 in favor of the Crushers.
"Unlike some of the other teams, we used extra hitters every game so that we could get every one of our players as many at bats as possible," noted Coach Giusti. "It is quite something to think that our town team from New Canaan can hang with teams that pull players from an area ten times our size. Our hope is that confidence and our performance carries over into the District Tournament this weekend."
The All-Star 12s play West Norwalk in their first game of the District Championships at Saxe field Saturday, July 3, at 11 a.m.
