Luca Fugarino of CT Baseball gets a good look at a fastball before his two-run double in the first.
By Rich Bevensee
As much as he’s fought his habit of getting off to poor starts as a pitcher, Cole Lewis nonetheless found himself in the same old situation when he took the hill for the Connecticut Rangers Showcase 17U ballclub on Wednesday afternoon
Lewis walked three of the first five batters before giving up a two-out, two-run double. Lewis was clearly flustered. He was shrugging his shoulders, rolling his eyes, giving off nonverbal cues that his brain was saying, here we go again.
“He wasn’t competing early in the game,” Rangers coach Mike Jamieson said. “I told him this team can’t hit you, you have to be the best version of yourself, and I tell you what, he settled in nicely. He’s a competitor. That’s what I love about the kid.”
Indeed he did settle in. Lewis allowed just one more run over the final four innings while his team backed him up with five runs on seven hits in a 5-3, five-inning victory over Connecticut Baseball Club Scout (CBCS) in Week 2 of the Super 17 Invitational Powered by Victus at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
There is no playoff for the Super 17 Invitational. It is a Showcase Series Qualifier, with the top five teams receiving an automatic bid to the Showcase Series August 10-13 at Diamond Nation.
The Rangers, based in southwest Connecticut, evened their record to 1-1 here, after bowing to 2027 Boilermakers, 7-1, on Tuesday. CBCS, a program hailing from New Canaan, Conn., fell to 0-2; they lost to Bonnie’s Avanzino, 4-1, on Tuesday.
Lewis, a 6-foot, 160-pound right-hander, throws a sweeper, slider, and curveball as well as four-seam and two-seam fastballs from all three arm angles. He yielded three runs on four hits and six walks in five innings.
“My two-seam was my primary – that gets me ahead in the count – and my sweeper and slider are my putaway pitches,” Lewis said.
CBCS made Lewis pay for his poor start with two runs in the top of the first. Rowan Stanton walked to lead off the game. Liam Goodheart and Wells Mara walked with two out and Luca Fugarino socked a two-run double to left center.
Lewis maintained a positive outlook on his first inning struggles and gave catcher Lawrence Roccamo (a rising senior at New Fairfield HS) much of the credit for helping him right the ship.
“Usually my first inning is the worst,” said Lewis, a rising senior at Bronxville (N.Y.) High. “I don’t know why that is. I’m still trying to figure it out. It wasn’t my day. I couldn’t really find it on the mound. Luckily I have a very supportive catcher. He knows me better than I sometimes do. He told me to get rid of the curve and stop throwing sidearm. So I focused on throwing overhand, finding the zone and getting ahead and then working in the offspeed.”
The Rangers’ Nate O’Hara breaks for second after an RBI single in the third inning.
Offensively, the Rangers were quick to back up Lewis. Leading off the bottom of the first, Caden Amalfitano singled, Sandro Velardo walked, Joe Olivet singled and Matt Boyle launched a two-run, grounds-rule double to tie the game.
The Rangers seized the lead in the second inning on a pair of unearned runs. Naim Elezi singled and took second on an errant pickoff throw. Elezi scored with one out when Brendan Demers reached on a dropped third strike and raced all the way to third on an errant throw to first. Then Demers scored on an error following a Jack Mariani infield grounder.
Nate O’Hara’s RBI single in the third drove in Boyle with the Rangers’ fifth and final run.
CBCS added a run in the fourth when Goodheart singled, Mara and Figarino walked to load the bases and Michael Sargis earned a one-out walk to plate Goodheart.
Jamieson, probably thinking about his Rangers going 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position, said he hoped the Rangers were thinking less about who was watching the game and more about what was happening on the field.
“I like that we were aggressive but we could do a little bit better job being aggressive in certain situations,” Jamieson said. “It’s situational baseball. As much as we talk about being aggressive and trying to swing in front of coaches, having a good approach with runners in scoring position is important. Situational awareness is important.”
For the Rangers, Amalfitano was their only batter to notch multiple hits, as he went 2-for-2 with a walk from his leadoff spot.
Amalfitano, the Rangers shortstop and a rising 5-10, 160-pound junior at Danbury (CT) High, is eager to improve his skills this summer to not only impress the multitude of college scouts in attendance at ‘The Nation,’ but the varsity coach at Danbury as well. Amalfitano played JV ball in the spring and he estimated he had roughly 10 at bats on the varsity level.
“You just have to play your game,” Amalfitano said. “We’ve practiced hard and worked hard. We know what we have. We can’t get nervous. We just have to play our game because once you get nervous you start to mess up. I know I’m a good player so I can’t get into who’s watching the game. This summer I want to get bigger, stronger, hit the ball harder and get faster.”