Matthews wins it for Torrington in 11th

Jaren Mathews (Rutgers) got the Twisters back to .500 with one swing, blasting an 11th-inning solo homer to lead Torrington to a 3-2 victory over the SteepleCats in North Adams, Mass.
Mathews added a double and two runs scored to his strong day while Josh Chasse (San Diego State) went 2-for-5 with two runs batted in for the Twisters (9-9). Danny Beck (Southern California) got the win (2-0) with one inning of scoreless relief. Robert Chimpky (Utah) picked up his fourth save. North Adams is 8-14.

Manchester strands 13 Torrington runners in win over Twisters

Torrington left 13 runners on base in a 6-3 loss to Manchester Sunday night.
The Silkworms trailed 3-1 early, but rallied for 2 in the 4th to tie the game.
Manchester broke through in the eighth against reliever Alex Valadja (James Madison University). Sean O’Hara (Harvard) walked to lead off the inning. First baseman Jeff Cammans (Rhode Island) picked on Valadja’s first pitch and ripped it off of the top of the left field fence to put runners on second and third with none out. After Michael Gallic (Marist) was walked intentionally, Michael Bourdon (Fairfield) walked to give Manchester the lead at 4-3. On an 0-1 pitch to J.P. Polchinski (Army), Valadja hit him in the foot with a curveball. Hunt argued that Polchinski did not make an attempt to get out of the way of the pitch, but the protest was to no avail. The next batter, A.J. Rusbarsky (Seton Hall), lifted a fly ball to center field. Josh Chasse (San Diego State) threw home, but his throw was well up the third base line and Gallic scored. A good throw may have gotten Gallic at the plate. Instead, the score was 6-3.
Torrington put up a major threat against reliever J.J. Potrikus (SUNY-Cortland) in the eighth. After a Brian Baudinet (UMass-Amherst) single, Corey Huffine (Post University) grounded to first base and was thrown out 3-1. The Twisters argued that Potrikus’s foot was off the base, but the call was not changed. Corey Shimada (Utah) singled to center to put runners on first and second, but Joe De Pinto (Southern California) popped out to short. Austin was hit by a pitch to load the bases, bringing the go ahead run to the plate. Potrikus got Jaren Mathews (Rutgers) to pop to Bourdon to end the inning.
De Pinto went 2-for-5 for the Twisters. Torrington (7-8) also got hits from Shimada, Chasse, Baudinet and Chase Austin (Elon). Bourdon went 2-for-3 with 3 RBIs for Manchester (7-9), which ended a five-game losing streak. The Silkworms also got 2 hits apiece from Matt Gross (Notre Dame) and Zach Hudson (Middle Tennessee State).

Torrington falls to Vermont

The Torrington Twisters fell back to .500 Thursday night, but remained in a tie for first place in the Southern Division after a 5-2 loss to the Vermont Mountaineers.
Torrington is tied at 6-6 with Newport for the division lead. The Gulls lost to the Holyoke Blue Sox 6-4 Thursday night. Vermont got four runs in the first off of starter Brett Miller (San Diego State), who fell to 1-2 on the season.
The Twisters trailed 5-1, but had the bases loaded with one out in the seventh. Josh Chasse (SDSU) was hit by a pitch, forcing in a run to make it 5-2, but Jaren Matthews (Rutgers) flew out to left and Chase Austin (Elon) popped out to second on a 2-o pitch to end the inning.
Kevin Nieto (Manhattan College) went 4-for-5 with a triple and an RBI for Vermont. The Mountaineers also got two hits from Jeff Mercer (Wright State) and Ethan Paquette (University of Vermont). Eric Smith (University of Rhode Island) pitched 6 innings and got the win to improve to 1-1 on the season.
Alex Valadja pitched 2 strong innings in relief, striking out one while walking one for Torrington. Matthews, Corey Shimada (Utah), Joe De Pinto (USC) and Bryson Rahier (San Jose State) each had one hit for the Twisters.
Torrington plays in Pittsfield tonight at 7 against the Dukes.

Twister players among league leaders

Some of the current Torrington Twisters are among the league leaders in several categories in the early part of the season.
Jaren Matthews (Rutgers) is tied for third in RBIs with 9 and is tied for second with 2 home runs, according to the NECBL Web site. Chase Austin (Elon) is also tied for second in homers with 2. Kevin Mager (Maine) is tied for the league lead in triples with one. Josh Chasse (San Diego State) and Corey Shimada (Utah) are eached tied for fourth in the league in steals with 4 and both are tied for third in steal attempts with five.
On the mound, Josh Zeid (Tulane) and Steve Geltz (Buffalo) are among a slew of players tied for first in ERA with a mark of 0.00. Zeid has done it in one 7-inning start while Geltz has pitched four perfect innings. Geltz is also tied for first in opponent batting average with a mark of .000. Brett Miller (San Diego State) is third in innings pitched with 16.1.

Twisters notch first home win

The Torrington Twisters won their first home game Friday with a 6-0 shutout of the Manchester Silkworms.
Brett Miller (San Diego State) went six innings for Torrington, giving up one hit while striking out 2 and walking 4. Miller got of a bases loaded jam (3 walks) with a strikeout to end the first inning.
Jaren Matthews (Rutgers) and Jonathan Cluff (Brigham Young) each homered for the Twisters. Matthews hit a three-run homer in the fifth for a 4-0 lead while Cluff's two-run home run in the sixth finished off the scoring. Chase Austin (Elon) starting the scoring with a run-scoring single in the third. Corey Shimada (Utah) scored twice for Torrington.
Craig Schneider (Alderson-Broaddus College) pitched the seventh and eighth innings, giving up two hits while striking out three and walking one. Steve Geltz (Buffalo) pitched a perfect ninth, striking out the side on 10 pitches.
The Twisters are 2-3 on the season and hosts Danbury Saturday at 7. Josh Zeid gets the start against the Westerners. Manchester is 4-2.

Twisters lose heartbreaker in Newport

The Twisters dropped their second straight game Monday, a 7-6 heartbreaker to the Newport Gulls in Newport.
Jack Murphy (Princeton) led off the Newport 11th with a single, according to the NECBL online play-by-play. He was sacrificed to second by Joey Manning (Vanderbilt). After an intentional walk to Taylor Meehan (Havard), Cody Grisham (Tennessee) singled to drive in Murphy with the winning run.
The walk-off single spoiled a great comeback by Torrington in the top of the ninth. With Robert Morey (Virginia) on to close the game for the Gulls, pinch hitter Jonathan Cluff (Brigham Young) singled. After Cluff advanced to second on a wild pitch, Josh Chasse (San Diego State) drew a walk. After Corey Shimada (Utah) struck out looking for the first out, Jaren Matthews (Rutgers) reached on an error to load the bases for Brian Baudinet (UMass-Amherst). Baudinet walked, forcing in Cluff to make the score 6-4.
The Gulls changed pitchers, bringing in Dan Mahoney (UConn). Blake Silguero (Cisco Junior College) greeted him with a sacrifice fly to score Chasse to cut the Newport lead to 6-5.
With the Twisters down to their final out, Aaron Barrows ( singled to score Matthews and tie the game at 6. Torrington had its chances to win the game in the 10th and the 11th. In the tenth, Chasse walked with two outs and stole second, but was stranded.
The Twisters had an even better chance in the 11th. With one out, Baudinet walked and stole second. Things got even better for Torrington when Mahoney uncorked a wild pitch, moving Baudinet to third. Mahoney stranded Baudinet at third by striking out Silguero and Corey Huffine (Post University) to end the jam.
The Gulls also had chances to end the game before the 11th. Newport had runners on first and second with two out in the ninth, but Steve Geltz (Buffalo) got Jeff Butler (Mississippi State) to line out to Chase Austin (Elon) at short to end the jam. In the tenth, the Gulls had a runner on first with one out. Alex Gregory (Radford) ripped a liner to center that was caught by Chasse. Chasse threw to first to double off pinch runner Pete Mastors (Rhode Island) and end the inning.
The Twisters are 0-2 on the season while Newport is 2-1. Torrington takes the road again Wednesday when they play at Danbury.