Twisters Make Quick Work of Silkworms
Novakowski Out-Duels
Granitto in 3-1 Win-by Paul Ofria
MANCHESTER- The
Silkworms' eighth NECBL season and fourth consecutive
playoff appearance came to an end Friday night at Northwest
Park when Torrington won game two of the best-of-three
series 3-1 Friday night at Northwest Park.
Torrington will move on to the Southern Division finals and
will play the winner of the Newport - North Adams series
next week.
Twister starter Gary Novakowski allowed three hits and
struck out four over seven innings for the win. Giuseppe
Granito took the loss for Manchester despite giving up just
two hits over six innings. The lefty from the Bronx struck
out six and walked three batters but gave up all three
Torrington runs.
Novakowski cruised through the first 5 2/3 innings, retiring
16 straight after back-to-back singles to Matt Smedberg and
Ryan Lavarnway in the first inning. Smedberg, who hit .500
in the series (4 for 8 with a run scored and stolen base)
singled with two out in the sixth, but was stranded at first
when Lavarnway grounded back to the pitcher.
"Novakowski did a good job,' Manchester Manager Trevor Brown
said after his first season manning the Silkworm dugout came
to a close. "He got stronger as the night went on. He
pitched both sides of the plate, threw his changeup in
certain times, then went to his slider at different times
and we just could not get a good swing on him at all. Not
overpowering, but he got his two-seamer to sink down and in
and broke some bats, got a lot of ground balls."
Granitto needed just nine pitches (six strikes) in a 1-2-3
second inning that featured a pair of strikeouts and turned
in 1-2-3 innings in the fourth, putting together a stretch
of eight consecutive outs.
It's the third inning that Granitto would like to makeover.
Granitto struck out a pair, but needed four outs to get out
of the inning. Eric Deragisch reached on a wild pitch after
striking out on what would have been the third out of the
inning, forcing Granitto to throw an extra twenty pitches.
Granitto walked Steve Parker after the wild pitch, and then
gave up a two- run double to the right-center field gap to
Garrett Green before striking out Chris Klepps to end the
37-pitch inning. The two runs proved to be all Torrington
would need.
Granitto threw 99 pitches (60 strikes) while Novakowski got
71 of his 98 pitches over for strikes.
The Twisters made it 3-0 when Green scored from third on a
Granito balk in the sixth. Green singled, stole second and
went to third on a wild pitch prior to the balk.
"They outplayed us," Brown conceded. "They are coached well
and they've been there before - they got to the championship
last year."
Manchester plated its lone run in the eighth when Eric Nieto
hit a two-out triple over Deragisch's head in center field
off reliever Craig Chaput and scored on Brian Kelaher's
ground out to second, cutting the Twister lead to 3-1.
Torrington closer Steve Strasburg (1.29 ERA, eight saves
during regular season) came on to pitch the ninth, mixing a
94 mph fastball in with a 78 mph changeup, the later
catching Anthony Russell looking to end the game, series and
season for the Silkworms.
Manchester fans got one more look at their prized bullpen
duo when Will Musson and Rob Hallberg shut out the Twisters
on two hits over the final three innings. Musson (two
innings, two hits, two strikeouts) and Hallberg (one perfect
inning) share the team mark for appearances with 21 while
Hallberg led the league with 12 saves and now holds the team
mark for saves in a season with 12.
Matt Nandin had seven assists for the Silkworms from second
base while double play partner Kyle Higgins handled four
chances and third baseman Steve Crawford three in an
errorless game that took just 2:18 to play.
"They battled all year," Brown said reflecting on the season
that did not produce a post- season victory following a
19-22 record in league play. "We were five or six games
under .500 in the middle of the season, and they could have
easily packed it in at that point, but we went on our
winning streak (nine of 12 from July 6th through 26th). It's
a long season - we start practicing in the middle of January
and then you go all the way to the end of May, then you've
got to come here, you don't know anybody, you're in a new
home, you've got a guy who is trying to do different things
that you aren't used to and you probably want to go home at
one point in the summer. They did a great job, we just ran
out of gas."
