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Middletown draws the New England Collegiate Baseball League’s top team, Torrington (30-10), for a best-of-three divisional series that starts today in Torrington. Because the Giants can not get Palmer Field this week, all three games of the series will be played at Fuessenich Park, but the Giants will be the home team for the middle game.
This year’s NECBL playoffs are three rounds (each a best-of-three series) scheduled for nine consecutive days.
The Twisters are riding a four-game winning streak, but the Giants have played increasingly well against them, which is good news since Middletown yet has a win in five attempts against them this season. Two of the last three losses were by one run and two runs, respectively. The last was a 10-inning affair that Middletown could have, perhaps should have, won.
The Giants are coming off an emotional 5-3 extra-inning victory over the Tides in which they twice escaped costly errors with good pitching and some timely hitting.
Middletown manager Al Leyva challenged the team to play with their hearts after a lackluster game one performance, something he hopes they will carry into the playoffs. Middletown has shown flashes of brilliance, but whether or not they can be consistent will ultimately decide its fate.
"Who knows? Maybe we can take it to the next level," Leyva said Sunday. "We’ve been saying that all season."
Matchup problems, at least on paper, exist. Torrington is the league’s top pitching squad, boasting a 2.18 team ERA. Middletown, on the other hand, is the league’s worst hitting team with a not so spectacular .213 batting average.
What the Giants do have is a hot starter in Mike Parisi. The right-handed ace won his final five decisions to finish 7-2. Although Middletown has lost pitchers Morrow Thomley, Eric Mennen and Landon Brazell, Leyva believes his staff has plenty of arms to go to battle.
"That could hurt us a bit, but I think we’ll be alright," he said. "It just means the other guys get a couple more innings, and I think they’re OK with that."
Riverpoint crept close to Giants over the weekend but needed the Giants to lose both ends of their doubleheader with Thread City to pass them. That didn’t happen.
With Monday’s game moot for playoff purposes and threatening weather conditions, the Giants’ make-up game against Vermont was canceled.
