Brendan Kirck has had his share of battles with Hamden. As a pitcher at Notre Dame-West Haven, Kirck and the Green Knights have seen first-hand how explosive Hamden’s lineup can be.
Kirck now gets to enjoy that lineup on the same side of the field.
Scoring in each of the first three innings and riding the right arm of Kirck, Hamden Post 88 opened the summer season with an 8-0 victory over West Haven Post 71 in the American Legion season opener for both teams at Piurek Field in West Haven Saturday morning.
“I just settled in after the first two innings,” Kirck said after allowing just four hits, while striking out 12 and walking one over six innings. “I know we have a good team this year. I just want to throw strikes and let the defense make plays behind me. The key was throwing first pitch strikes. That is always big when you are able to do that.”
Hamden set the tone of the game in the first inning, scoring a pair of runs after two were out.
West Haven starting pitcher Nick Flammia retired the first two batters of the game, before Mike Ferrett walked, Ron Desroches singled, and Frank Niro was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Henry Bielen followed with a single to left, scoring both Ferrett and Desroches for a 2-0 lead.
Post 88 took advantage of a West Haven error to take a 3-0 lead in the second as Ferrett capped the rally with a bases-loaded walk to score Matt Wendland who reached on an error to open the inning.
“It was a good start for us,” Hamden coach Ray Guarino said. “We did a good job of getting runs with two outs. We battled in the box and we were able to put some good swings together.”
Kirck retired the Westies in order in both the second and third innings, and Post 88 took advantage by increasing the lead to five runs with two more runs in the top half of the third with another two-out rally.
After Flammia retired the first two batters of the third, he ran into trouble when Wendland walked, stole second, and scored on a single to left by Nick DeBrizzi. DeBrizzi went to second on the throw, and scored when Tyler Osborne reached on an error.
“We got off to a slow start,” West Haven coach Fred Morgillo said. “We didn’t hit, and we need to play better in the field. It’s a slow start, but we will get there.”
West Haven never got going offensively in the contest against Kirck as Post 71 managed only a two-out single by Sean Jefferson in the first, a leadoff single to left by Ty Reeves in fourth, and a one-out single by Justin Uribe coupled with a walk to Steve Byrd in the fifth.
All were left stranded with the Westies wasting a golden opportunity in the fifth as Reeves and Byrd were in scoring position with one out, before Kirck struck out the final two batters of the inning to escape without any damage.
“BK (Kirck) had a long first two innings with a lot of pitches, but he settled in nicely and went about his business,” Guarino said. “He got ahead of batters and from there was able to do what he wanted.”
Hamden added to its lead with a run in the sixth on Niro’s single, before scoring twice in the seventh on a homer to right by Osborne and a run-scoring triple by Ferrett.
“You have to get as many wins as possible, so this is a good start,” Guarino said. “Zone II is so tough. There are no days off. We played well for our first game.”
Flammia lasted four innings for the Westies, allowing seven hits and five runs, three of which were earned, while walking three and striking out four.