19U American Legion Baseball: Fairfield Topples Shelton Despite Slow Start

Fairfield 19U Militia defeated Shelton 12-2 in six innings on Sunday morning at Kiwanis Field in Fairfield.     

Despite the final score, things did not get going for Fairfield right away, at least offensively. 

On the mound, Kyle Carozza was strong, throwing five innings, allowing four hits and two unearned runs. He walked three and struck out nine. 

The game was scoreless through the first three innings before Shelton got two on the board in the top of the fourth. Shelton got two runs on three hits and was helped out by a Fairfield error. The damage could have been more if not for Charlie Mulhall throwing out a runner trying to score from second on a single. 

Fairfield came right back in the bottom half of the inning, scoring five times. The Milita got on the board when Jack Martin hit a fly ball to left center field with runners on second and third that was dropped by the left fielder. 

The next batter, Steven Titus, hit into a fielders choice with runners on the corners to tie the game at two. Two batters later, with runners at first and second, Aidan Gouley singled to right and the ball got past the Shelton right fielder to bring in Titus and Matt Vivona. 

Two batters later, Fairfield capped the scoring in the inning when Mulhall singled into short right field to plate Gouley and give Fairfield a 5-2 lead. 

The Militia broke the game open, scoring seven times in the sixth to put the run rule into effect. 

Vivona led off the inning with a hustle double to left-center field. Gouley then reached second on an error allowing Vivona to score. 

Jack Corcoran followed up with a double to bring in Gouley. The next batter, Mulhall doubled to short right field to put runners at second and third and the pinch-runner for Corcoran, John Salerno, had to hold up to make sure the ball wasn't caught. 

Luke Anderson then singled to right field to bring in both Salerno and Mulhall and put Fairfield up 9-2. 

Three batters later, with the bases loaded, Martin hit a line drive single up the middle to plate a run and increase the lead to 10-2. 

A wild pitch pushed the score to 11-2 and put runners at second and third. 

Titus then singled through the left side to plate the twelfth run and end the game. 

Titus also threw the final inning on the mound, working around a hit to throw a scoreless sixth, including striking out one.