The Trumbull High 15U Babe Ruth team did the three things needed to advance in the District Tournament with a 2-1 11-inning victory over Norwalk at Unity Park on Saturday.
Evan Warner and Stephen Ioli handled the pitching chores, Ioli and Timmy Seymour had clutch RBI hits, Chaz Stolba made a game-saving catch, and Jake Teixeira caught all 11 innings and threw out the potential winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Trumbull moves to 1-0 in the tournament. The first game of the championship round will be 8 p.m. Tuesday. Norwalk and Fairfield will play today at 10 a.m. and Monday night at 8 to decide the team that will face Trumbull in the championship.
“Evan Warner threw the first seven innings and gave up only a first-inning run,” Trumbull manager Jeff John said. “Stephen Ioli came on to get the win with four great innings of relief.
“Stephen scored Alex Chopskie to tie the game with a sacrifice fly in the fourth. Timmy scored Beau Demelo with the go-ahead run with a single through the middle in the 11th.”
Before Trumbull could celebrate, it had to withstand one more Norwalk rally.
Stolba, with the tying and winning runs on base in the bottom of the 11th inning, came flying in to make a head first sliding catch for the final out.
“Evan took an inning to get his bearings,” John said. “He threw fifty pitches in the first three innings, but settled in and tossed a gem (85 pitches) to hold Norwalk to one run.
With a rolling seven-inning pitch rule in effect, Ioli took to the mound and continued to throw goose eggs at the stellar Norwalk lineup.