Experience helped St. Bernard win state championship
by Matt Stout and Marc Allard
It was there for the first-round, no-hit loss in 2004. It played in the quarterfinal loss to Windsor Locks the following year, and the semifinal loss in 2006, again to the Raiders.
Then Saturday, with its team playing in the Class S championship against Northwest Catholic-West Hartford at Yale Field, the eight-man senior class of the St. Bernard baseball team -- or at least most of it -- was again on the verge of falling short of a state title, this time coming closer than ever.
They couldn't let that happen.
Down 4-2 in the fifth inning to the second-seeded Indians, seniors Grant Livingston, Michael Aldrich, Tyler Turgeonand Jeff Daleyall strode to the plate, reached first and didn't look back. With the help of junior Harrison Smith's RBI single, all four either scored, drove in a run or did both, helping to buoy the Saints to their first state in 25 years with the 6-4 win.
Long the backbone of this year's team, the Saints' seniors -- a group that also includes Kyle Brahm, Dan Eaganand Mike Whalen-- played an especially important role in the championship as they took the field without one of their own in Ben Nossekand their coach, Mike Garvie, who were ejected from the team's semifinal win and were not allowed to attend the championship.
"We have so much senior leadership," said Turgeon, who went 1-for-3 with three RBI, including a two-run triple that tied it in the decisive fifth. "Coach Garvie has been so good with us all year, just pounding into us how to be leaders. And as soon as he can't go out there and coach us, we all just stepped up at the same time and took it over."
"We've been playing together for four years now and everybody stepped up and became leaders," said Daley, who drove in the go-ahead run. "That really helped pull the team together."
Of course, they had help in acting coach Jim Leone, who was coaching in his 27th year and third state championship but first as the head manager.
"I'm going to be the answer to a trivia question someday, 1-0 and winning a state championship. But it's all about them," he said, referring to the players.
Rousseau honored
It was only fitting that Waterford would play in the Class M state championship as the entire CIAC baseball state tournament was dedicated to former Waterford coach, the late Gerry Rousseau.
"It would have been more apropos if we had won it," Waterford coach Jack O'Keefe said with a wry smile after his team left the field with a loss in the Class M state title game to Seymour.
Rousseau knew what it was like to win a state title -- he collected five of them for the Lancers, but he also knew what was going through O'Keefe's mind Friday night as he finished second three times in his career.
Rousseau finished with 510 career wins, 212 losses and 16 ECC titles. He was also the National High School baseball coach of the year in 1985. He was inducted into the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1987, the Norwich Sports Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Waterford Hall of Fame in 2002.
All of those accomplishments were noted in a ceremony at home plate prior to the Class M title game with a number of Rousseau's family in attendance including his son, Alex.
"It's a wonderful thing to do," Alex said as he took in the Waterford-Seymour game. "He was a great man who did a lot of great things for a lot of people. My family always has people coming up to us to tell us stories about our father, what he did for them and what he meant to them. It wasn't only children that he influenced."
Alex added there was no question that, if Rousseau had been alive, he would have been on hand in New Haven to not only root on the Lancers, but something else.
"My father was a person who liked to watch good baseball because he knew the discipline that it took to execute good baseball and he was very passionate about the game," Alex said. "To see it played right was something that he always strove for and it was something that gave him pleasure on any level from the Major Leagues to Little League."
Tough Wildcat
Charles Chanciowas certainly not the most overpowering pitcher Waterford had ever seen, but it would be hard to argue that he wasn't the best.
The Seymour lefthander stymied the Lancers like few have this season as he allowed only four base hits in seven innings and the Wildcats walked away with their fifth state championship with the 2-0 shutout victory at Yale Field in New Haven Friday night.
"He got a couple of guys out early with runners in scoring position and he just settled down after that," Waterford coach Jack O'Keefe said. "He pitched a great game. We only got four hits and that doesn't frequently happen. It's a credit to him."
The Lancers (25-2) only got two runners on in the same inning, once in the game. That happened in the second when Jake Simon singled with one out and after an out, Kyle Turnierhad a base hit but a Chancio strikeout ended the threat.
The only other runner to reach second for Waterford was Mickey Amanti, who singled and stole second in the third. Rob Bonoreached base on an error in the sixth and Turnier added an infield single in the seventh. Waterford's ability to rally from a deficit late in the game, as it did throughout the tournament, never showed itself Friday night.
"You hope (for the rally) but you can't keep going to the well," O'Keefe said. "When you get a guy pitching like that, it's tough."
Chancio, who struggled in a start earlier in the tournament against Stonington, did nothing of the sort against the Lancers. He didn't allow a walk and struck out five while keeping the Waterford hitters off balance all night long.
The key, said Chancio, was getting up in the count consistently.
"It was absolutely important because when you're ahead in the count, you can throw any pitch at any time," he said. "You can throw the fastball, the deuce and the change-up, that kept them off balance the whole game and it definitely was a big reason why we won."
"High school baseball -- get ahead in the count, and now you put the batters on the defensive," Seymour coachBob Kelosaid. "He did it with three different pitches, he got ahead with his change-up, he got ahead with his curve and his fastball. We didn't really pitch in a pattern so they were a little back on their heels."
Chancio was given a little extra confidence when his team scored two runs in the second inning on an RBI double by Danny Perez and Jay Burns' RBI base hit.
"We knew that we could come out here and hang with them, that was our goal," Chancio said. "Piece a run or two together, hang with them and hope to come out with the victory."
O'Keefe decided to start Simon because of all the work that Bono had done on the mound in the state tournament. Bono pitched at least three innings in each of the tourney games that Waterford played and O'Keefe decided he couldn't ask for seven more.
"Forty-eight hours ago, he threw 40 pitches, and he's throwing 92, 93 miles per hour," O'Keefe said after the game Friday night. "That's a very talented kid who would go out and throw 30 innings for you if he could. It's a decision I made and one that I have to live with but I didn't even want him to throw five."
Kelo said the runs were big because they had to take advantage of Bono's absence on the hill.
"We were fortunate to get a couple of runs early because we knew Rob was coming in," Kelo said. "They have somebody who was drafted (by the major leagues), I don't."
In fact, Kelo had only two seniors on his squad this season, Chancio and center-fielder Jack Smith.
"Last year, we made it to the semifinals and returned six of our nine starters, and we knew two of the three fill-ins, too, so we knew we could possibly contend for the state finals," Chancio said.
Reach Assistant Sports Editor Marc Allard at 425-4212 or mallard@norwichbulletin.com
