Long ball helps Connery defeat Gautreau

LYNN – In a summer baseball season fraught with fits and starts thanks to the wretched weather, none of the American Legion teams have had much of a chance to play with any consistency.But Thursday night, at Breed’s Edmunds Field, Connery Post 6 was certainly in midseason form. The Sixers belted the ball all over the yard, getting five home runs – two each by Roberto Reyes and T.J. Bartlett – and rode the pitching of Greg Rybek to a 13-7 victory over Gautreau in the battle of Lynn’s Legion teams.Click here for a photo gallery.The win puts Connery at 5-3 and leaves Gautreau at 4-6. And with the weather forecast turning somewhat favorable for the weekend, both teams will make hay while the sun shines, with doubleheaders on both Saturday and Sunday.”After (today), we’re playing every day until the season ends,” said Connery manager Tim Fila.”It’s been brutal, but everyone’s in the same boat,” said Gautreau manager Chris Tgettis. “We had four games scheduled two weeks ago, and none of them got played. We had four last week, and only one of them got played.”None of that mattered Thursday night. Connery’s bats – which had been projected to be its strong suit – really came alive. Reyes led off the top of the second with a solo shot over the left-field fence, and two outs later, after back-to-back walks to Bartlett and Anthony Ortiz, Alex Fiste cranked one out of the park and it was 4-0.Any thoughts of a rout were put on hold, though, as Gautreau answered in its half of the second with five runs, batting around in the process.Angelo Codispoti led off with a walk and Junior Santos reached on a forceout. What followed were three straight singles – by Tyler Gauthier, Brendan Carritte and John Chambers – each scoring a run. A double by Justin Sharkey brought home the fourth run, Bob Atkins’ single scored the fifth, and it was 5-4.”Greg (Rybek) had one bad inning,” said Fila. “Other than that, I thought he pitched well. They (Gautreau) got single runs in the last two innings, but he said he felt fine.”With all these games we have coming up, it was important to get a good game out of him,” Fila said.Connery came back with four runs in the third to retake the lead, 8-5, thanks to a double by Reyes, a sacrifice fly by Wilson Mercado, and a two-run shot by Bartlett. The Sixers got four more an inning later when Reyes belted his second homer – this one a grand slam – and it was 12-5. Bartlett’s second homer of the night made it 13-5 before the Raiders got two late scores, one on a sacrifice by Sharkey in the fifth and the final one on Estaban Paula’s home run.”They have good hitters,” Tgettis said, “but I’m more concerned with what we do. We’re all right. They just came out hitting tonight.””It was good to see the hits,” said Fila. “That’s what most people thought of us when the season started. This was a good win for us tonight.”