Turner, a 20th-round pick of the Texas Rangers in the 2019 MLB Draft out of Ledyard High who is now at the University of Hartford, retired the first two batters. But before he’d get the third out, three batters reached, with Adam Stone’s RBI single giving the Bombers a 10-9 victory.

Brass City went on to take the title with a 13-1 victory in the winner-take-all contest that followed at East Catholic High’s Jim Penders Field, ending the Eagles’ one-year reign at CCBL champion.

“I have to give a big shout to Adam Stone,” Brass City third baseman Nick Lorusso said. “That hit was absolutely clutch and the momentum carried into the bottom of the seventh and beyond.

“Winning the first game that way was enormous. I know how much the guys on our team wanted this. We battled. We knew that if we got the first one, the other team would have a hard time coming back.”

Brass City won five straight elimination games after falling into the losers bracket with a second-round loss to the Manchester Meagles. The Bombers avenged that loss with a walk-off win in eight innings Saturday to advance to the championship round.

And when Lorusso, the 2019 Big East Freshman of the Year at Villanova, hit a three-run shot in the fourth inning for his second home run of Game 1, Brass City had a 9-4 advantage.

But the Eagles answered with four runs in their half of the fourth and tied it in the sixth on Ben Dellacono’s leadoff opposite-field home run off the scoreboard in right.

Manchester co-coaches Jimmy Titus and Josh Simpson called on Turner.

“I thought with the way we were swinging the bats that we had a lot of momentum going into the inning,” Titus said. “I thought it would be best to bring Turner in and see what he could do for us. He couldn’t start today because he didn’t have enough rest.

“We were battling back and forth and it was good to get him out there n that situation. But even sometimes the best guys give it up.”

With two outs, Jack Drury singled and No. 9 hitter Rob Taylor walked. Stone, from Harvard University, then looped a single to plate the lead run.

Dominic Perachi got six outs to earn the Game 1 win on the mound. The left-hander from Division III Salve Regina then pitched three shutout innings to start Game 2 and was credited with a second victory.

“I approached it with the same mentality that I would any other game,” Perachi said. “I would argue that regardless of where you play, if you command your changeup and off-speed pitches, you can compete with anyone. I’m just happy that my stuff was working today. I don’t really think about D-3, D-1, any of that stuff. I just go out there and pitch and attack every batter.”

Brass City scored three runs on five hits off of losing pitcher and East Catholic graduate Anthony Mozzicato from Central Connecticut State in the second inning with Southern Connecticut’s Zach Bedryczuk delivering a two-run single. Jack Lynch of Ithaca College made it 7-0 with a two-run homer in the fourth and the Bombers turned it into a rout with two runs in the fifth and four in the sixth,

Bedryczuk, Drury, and Stone drove in three runs each for Brass City. Manchester’s only run came on an RBI double from UConn’s Kyler Fedko in the sixth.

The air had come out of the Eagles’ balloon with that Game 1 loss, though.

“Being in those shoes myself before, when you’re battling back as an offense the whole game and you have to keep answering and answering it takes a lot out of you,” Titus said. “We were hoping that second game would be more low scoring to give our offense a break. Unfortunately it wasn’t that way. That’s baseball.”

The Eagles will settle for the CCBL regular season crown.

While their players will head back to their respective colleges to get ready for what they hope is a season in 2021, Titus (Los Angeles Dodgers) and Simpson (Miami Marlins) will also be preparing for their second year of professional baseball in the spring.

One day wasn’t going to ruin the six weeks they enjoyed as coaches.

“I’m just here to help these guys and give them all the information I can and be a good role model for them, even though I’m only a year older than some of them,” Titus said. “I was lucky to do this and have fun with them and coach and hopefully they’ll carry some good knowledge back to their college teams with them. I said to them after the game that as much as it would have been to win this title, it’s more important that they got better and help their college team maybe win a (NCAA) regional.

Link to Journal Inquirer