2024 Southington Navigators Walk-Off River Rats for Connecticut North 25+ Division Title
Connecticut North MSBL, 25+ Division
Southington Navigators 2, Collinsville River Rats 1 (Game three in best-of-three championship series)
Submitted by Shaun Wyman, Navigator’s manager
The Southington Navigators and Collinsville River Rats met in the CNMSBL Championship series on August 17th at Rec Park in Southington. Each team came in with two CNMSBL championships to their name. Southington won in 2014 & 2022 while Collinsville won back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019.
Collinsville came in as the #5 seed of six teams, having only won three games in the regular season. However, they got hot during the playoffs to sweep the #4 seed New Haven Cardinals and #1 seed Marlborough A’s on the road.
Southington came in as the #2 seed and after a first-round bye, beat the CT Braves in two very close games, both in come from behind fashion.
In Game one of the finals, Southington’s Dan Smallacombe got the start against Collinsville’s Jake Bryant. Collinsville jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning and added two more in the second. Southington got on the board in the bottom of the second on a Ben Burnett groundout. Steven Dubois scored on a wild pitch in the top of the fifth for Collinsville, to make it 4-1.
In the bottom of the fifth, the comeback for Southington began. Dom Campopiano’s RBI single scored Burnett, followed by two more singles by Nelson Tirado and Anthony Munoz. Mike Scott then reached on an error that scored another run to close the gap to one.
In the bottom of the sixth, Mark Creamer’s RBI double to deep left scored Abi Polanco to tie the game. Then in the bottom of the seventh, Southington loaded the bases with one out on a walk, a bunt single, and an intentional walk. Polanco just needed to hit a fly ball and that’s what he did. However, it cleared the center field fence for a dramatic walk-off grand slam to take game one!
Creamer, who got the win in relief for Southington, started Game two against Dan Abramoske for Collinsville. The River Rats once again jumped out to a lead in the first, scoring runs on Abramoske’s single and a Southington error.
Polanco closed the gap in the top of the second with another home run, this time a solo shot. Tony Nicoletti’s double extended Collinsville’s lead back to two in the second, but that lead didn’t last long.
Munoz drove in a run for Southington in the top of the third with a single, and then scored when Matt Moran hit a 3-run homer to give Southington a 5-3 lead.
Collinsville wouldn’t go away as they took the lead back again in the bottom of the third, scoring runs on another Abramoske single followed by a 2-run single by Jamal Bethea. Collinsville would tack on two more in the fourth thanks to a Jeff Mulhall double and that would be all the scoring they would need to even up the series at 1-1. Mulhall would also register the save throwing two perfect innings to finish the game.
Game three on August 18th would unfortunately be rained out, so Game three was played on August 24th.
This time Mike Scott took the hill for Southington, while Bryant got the nod again for Collinsville on 6-day’s rest.
This story of this one was certainly a pitcher’s duel, but also the lack of timely hitting for Southington. The Navigators left 15 men on base thanks to eight hits, seven walks, and six Collinsville errors. However, this one somehow went to extra innings tied at one.
Justin Lovetere’s RBI single in the third and Polanco’s ground ball in the third were the only runs scored through eight innings.
Creamer, pitching in relief, wiggled his way out of a bases loaded, one-out jam in the top of the ninth, thanks to defensive plays by Mike Nelson, Polanco, and Scott Iwaniec.
In the bottom of the ninth, Munoz led off with a flare to left that was nearly caught by Josh Lamonte, but trickled out of his glove. After Scott struck out, Munoz advanced to second on an errant pickoff throw by Mulhall, who was pitching in relief. The River Rats then walk Moran to create a force play, but then both he and Munoz advance on a passed ball with Polanco at the plate.
Again, Polanco just needed a fly ball two win the game and this time a championship, as he floated a single to left field that drops in and wins the 2024 CNMSBL championship for the Southington Navigators.
Not to be lost in the shuffle, Mike Scott pitched seven innings on 97 pitches, allowing only four hits and two walks, while striking out five. Jake Bryant went four strong for Collinsville, allowing only one run on three walks and four hits.