After a very tough season of rain, rain, more rain, anticipated rain that didn’t arrive, some seemingly sparse baseball between rain showers, and an amazing high point (Dunkin’ Donuts Park games)… the end of the regular season is in reach. All Connecticut Twilight League teams close out their regular season schedules by this Friday, 8/4/2017. This is the final week of makeup games before the playoffs start next week. The CTL Playoffs are played at Rotary Field (Nevers Park) in South Windsor from Monday August 7th through Thursday August 17th.

With one week to go, the Bristol Knights hold a 15W-5L-2T record in the central division. Bristol has a magic number of 2, and are looking to clinch the division title and first round playoff bye. The Elmer’s Silver Bullets are trailing the Knights and the only team with a chance to catch them. The top overall seed is also still up for grabs.  The Orioles have a 2 game lead over the Knights in the overall standings, going into the final week. The Orioles clinched the Eastern Division regular season title late this past week, finally putting it out of reach of the Glastonbury Pirates. There are also multiple teams also battling to stay out of the bottom 4 seeds, so they won’t start the double elimination playoffs in the elimination bracket (with one loss). Many teams play 3 or 4 games this final week, with Elmer’s having 5 scheduled. Its a mad dash to the end.

The Knights open the final week of play on Monday 7/31 with a doubleheader at Muzzy Field. The first game starts at 6pm vs the Wethersfield Dodgers, and the second game follows the first around 8:15 vs the Willimantic Ridges.

Recaps of recent games:

7/18: Bristol Knights 1 – Brickhouse Indians 1
In a toughly fought divisional game at Sage Park in Berlin, the Knights battled to a tie (called due to darkness), behind the strong pitching of Earl Oakes (5IP, 6K) and Chris McGrath (2IP, 3K). Mike Cookson pitched the complete game for the Indians, collecting 4 strikeouts along the way. Steve Clout had a hit and scored the only Knights run.

7/20: Elmer’s Silver Bullets 2 – Bristol Knights 6
The Knights took down the slightly undermanned defending champion Elmers in a game at Bristol Eastern H.S. Bristol was led on offense by Kyle Lentini (2H, BB, 2 Runs, SB), Tyler Favreau (2H, Run, RBI), and Tyler Pina (Double, Run, RBI). Mike Castellani got the Win with 5 innings of work and 5 strikeouts, while Nick DiTaranto and Tyler Favreau each threw an inning to close out the win.

7/21: Bristol Knights 4 – Chicago Sam’s Orioles 11
In a game where not much went right for the Knights, the team was handed a very tough loss by the Orioles at Rocky Hill High School. The Knights were led offensively by Kyle Lentini (2H, Double, 2 RBI), Marco Ross (2H, Double, 2RBI), Scott Dickens (2H, BB, Run), and Nick Dzioba (2H, Double). On the Mound, Marco Ross took the hard luck loss. For the Orioles, Zack LaRosa hit a home run, while Brendan Sullivan had a multihit game. TJ Fearon got the win for Chicago Sam’s.

7/25: East Hartford Angels 2 – Bristol Knights 10
In the Knights only visit to Martin Park this year, the team’s offense opened up to score 10 runs on division rival Angels, capped by a Neil Kelley 3-Run Home Run. Neil also collected 2 walks, 2 runs, and 4 RBI on the day. Kyle Lentini had 2 Hits, a Double, 2 Runs, and an RBI. Rick Barrett also doubled with 2 RBI. Pitching for Bristol, Chris McGrath got the Win.

7/26: Bristol Knights 1 – Glastonbury Pirates 0
In a true pitchers game at Glastonbury High School, the Knights were able to find a way to score one run off of always tough Glastonbury pitcher, Zach Cloft. That was all that was needed in the nail biter that ended with another Bristol victory. Cloft threw the complete game for Glastonbury only allowing 4 hits and the one run. For the Knights, Earl Oakes got the start with 4 strong innings, including pitching his way out of a bases loaded first inning without allowing any runs. Earl only allowed 3 hits in his 4IP, while striking out 5. Mike Castellani closed out the game and got the win, with a strong final 3 innings, striking out 3 pirates. On offense, Marco Ross drove in Kyle Lentini to score the Knights only run.

7/28: Bristol Knights 1 – Elmer’s Silver Bullets 3
Elmer’s found some seeing eye hits and drove in the runs needed to knock off the Knights at Alumni Field (Newington H.S.) on Friday. Marco Ross took the loss for the Knights on the mound in 4IP, with 9 hits, and 3K. On a night when many Bristol regulars were unavailable… the team struggled offensively vs the always tough lefty Sam Tinkham of Elmers. Bristol was led by Dan Nunes who tripled and scored the only Knights run when Mike Scanlon drove him in.