Sports blog: Warrior Nation
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By JOHN NASH

Villager Sports Editor


WILTON -- If you took just four innings away from the Wilton Little League 12-year-old All-Stars this summer and gave them a do-over it might have been a vastly different District 1 tournament experience.

Instead, Wilton finishes its pool play run with a 2-4 mark, knowing it was a better team than its record indicates as it made its way through a stacked pool group that include undefeated North Stamford (6-0, 64 runs scored, 14 runs given up) and the other semifinal team, National Lione (4-2, 48 runs scored, 20 runs given up).

Darien American and Norwalk also finished at .500 or better while out-scoring its opponents.

"I thought the district, compared to the three other times I've had a 12-year-old team, was a very, very competitive group of teams," said Wilton manager Bob DeSantis. "Most of the time, you might have three teams that were quality programs, but this group had quite a few."

For the most part, Wilton played against all of them quite well -- save for a few costly innings.

"Four innings all season cost us," said DeSantis. "The first inning (against Lione), the second inning against Norwalk, the inning against Darien and the eighth inning against North Stamford."

It was that eighth inning against North Stamford that set the tone for Wilton. Giving up just one run on a sacrifice fly to the best team in the pool proved Wilton could play with anybody and also proved they could compete.

A six-run inning (with a grand slam), a five-run inning against Norwalk (with two home runs) and the mental mistakes from a bad inning at Darien came back to bite to Wilton.

"Take away those and we're a competitive team," DeSantis said. "Those teams didn't score many runs off of us in those other games."

Pitching proved to be Wilton's best weapon as the staff only gave up 24 runs in six games, or just three runs again.

Alex Jacobson, Trevor Blond, J.T. Morin and Will DeSantis headlined the group and handled most of the pitching chores for the squad.

Hitting, however, would also prove to be Wilton's Achille's heal as the team only scored 18 runs -- 11 of which came in an 11-1 win over Weston.

"We were looking to do things three-fold: Pitching, defense and making hard contact," said DeSantis. "I knew we didn't have an awful lot of long ball threats."

Wilton, in fact, didn't hit a single home run in the district tournament this summer.

But they didn't strike out a lot either.

"We made contact, we just didn't put very good sequences together," said DeSantis.

Richie Williams proved to be a capable lead-off hitter for Wilton, which got solid hitting through the top four slots of the line-up. The rest of the line up was hit or miss, depending on inning and game.

What pleased DeSantis the most as manager, though, was how every player on his team did find ways to contribute in games over the course of two weeks of pool play.

"I was pleasantly surprised by that," he said. "You hope for that, but I really think some kids stepped up, especially the ones who may didn't hit in the top four slots and only got an at-bat or two a game."

Plus, DeSantis said, this year's group was one of the hardest-working groups he's ever coached.

"This is the first tournament group I've had that didn't come out with a winning record, but I must say it's a group that worked as hard if not harder than many teams," he said. "I have to give them that. They played to the best of their abilities."

The one game that sticks with DeSantis the most was the opening game against North Stamford -- the 1-0 defeat in eight innings in which Jacobson and Blond matched Kevin Stone, perhaps the best pitcher in the tournament, pitch for pitch.

"I wish we had a crystal ball on that," DeSantis said, referring to what might have happened if the team had won its opener. "I don't think it deflated us at all. I think it brought out the competitiveness in us. It was a great experience to know, at least, we were the only team that could stay with the North Stamford juggernaught. At least they couldn't blow through Wilton easily."

Nobody could -- and if it wasn't for a couple of innings that came back to cost this year's Wilton 12s -- who knows what might have happened.

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