First place legion team faces showdown with Greenwich

Before its game against Fairfield was postponed on Tuesday, the Norwalk American Legion team was on quite a roll. The Post 12 squad entered this week's play with a 21-2 record, good for first place in Zone 4, which would ensure Norwalk of a postseason spot without having to take part in a play-in game.

"It feels great to be in first, it always seems like we're in second or third so this is a different feeling," Norwalk coach Steve Brueski said. "We feel like we're in pretty good shape with our pitching well rested and lined up for the Greenwich series.

"(Winning the zone) would be a tremendous advantage, if you have to go in the play-in game you have to use one of your best pitchers just to move on."

While the Norwalk pitching has been solid once again this season, Brueski points to the offense as the difference in the team from a year ago. Last year, Norwalk lost nine games overall, with seven of those losses being by one run. Brueski believes the offense has changed their fortunes.

"We've always had the solid starting pitching, and we're probably pitching as good as we did last year," he said. "This year we have a little bit more experience. The junior team used wooden bats for the first time last year and it definitely takes some time to adjust to them."

Brueski said that when players use wooden bats, they must change their philosophy at the plate. He said that because the sweet spot of a wooden bat is at least six inches smaller than that of an aluminum bat, players have to learn to square the ball more. A hit that would be in the gap with an aluminum bat, could be a pop up with a wooden one.

"The only way to get used to that is to hit every single day like we do. You have to take a lot of swings," Brueski said.

Brueski said it hasn't been the power numbers of the team that's impressed him the most, but the way Norwalk has been able to manufacture runs.

"We're doing very well with our situational hitting, getting fly balls with men on third. We probably have a dozen sacrifice flys this year and we're playing really well when we have to get runners in," Brueski said.

Brueski pointed to the performance of players like Zach Ruther. Ruther is in his third year with the team, but struggled with the wooden bats a year ago, hitting around .125. This year, he's upped his average to around .275 and has been a sparkplug.

"He even came up to me and said that last year, we wouldn't have scored a lot of the runs we've pushed across," Brueski said.

As impressive as the offense has been, the pitching has been equally vital.

Andrew Merritt leads the team with six wins, though Brueski hesitated when asked if he would call him the "ace" of the staff. Not because Merritt hasn't pitched well, but because of the dearth of pitching on the team.

"I think you could call him the anchor," Brueski said.

After Merritt, Norwalk has gotten strong seasons from Jonathan Cohen and Patrick Donahue, and Todd Lyons has begun to pitch better as the season wears on. Lyons didn't pitch this past spring, but his contributions have been key, as well as those from Donahue.

"We lead the league in shutouts, which is encouraging. Last year, out hitting put a lot of pressure on our pitching, but this year, we can have our pitchers go out there and just throw strikes because we're scoring some runs," Brueski said.

Cohen had to leave during a start against Stamford July 3 with shoulder tightness, but Brueski said that thanks to a favorable schedule, they have been able to rest him. Brueski said Cohen will start against Greenwich on Saturday, giving him a full two weeks between starts.

Leon Fleming has also emerged as an asset at the end of games, he tossed 2 1/3 scoreless frames against Stamford when Cohen left the game, and Donahue has pitched nicely after not being a regular in the rotation for Brien McMahon in the spring. Much of the juggling with the pitching staff became a necessity when Eric Stenger went down with a torn labrum early in the season.

Stenger was cleared to play this week, but is still unable to pitch. Brueski said that getting Stenger back will be a bonus, but that the team is in a "if it's not broke don't fix it," mentality right now.

"We're going to have to let him swing a little bit and earn his way back into the lineup," Brueski said.

This weekend's series with Greenwich is a big one. Greenwich, after being undefeated for much of the season, now has three losses and if things stay the same this week, whoever wins two out of three in the series will take first place for the zone.

Norwalk's only two losses are against Westport and Stamford.