#32 Foran upsets #1 Woodland in CIAC Class M State Tournament baseball

The #32 seed Foran High baseball team didn’t treat Saturday’s game Class M State tournament baseball game against #33 seed Goodwin Tech like a play-in game. Instead, they treated it like business. After a slow start, the 8-12 Lions riding the arm of Brandon Payne shutout Goodwin Tech 13-0, earning the right to face Class M’s, top-seeded 18-2 Woodland Regional High School in the Opening Round of the CIAC Baseball Championships on Tuesday in Beacon Falls.

Woodland’s ace, Bryant-commit Michael Belcher started fast striking out 4 of the first 6 Lions he faced while Foran's Zach Worzel settled in striking out 2.

In the top of the 3rd, a one-out walk to shortstop Jack D’Avignon and a Conlon Deschaine single gave Foran runners at first and second. Joe Gaetano and Vin Hine followed with RBI singles giving Foran a 2-0 lead. All-SCC catcher Kyle Vieselman plated Gaetano on a deep sac fly to center, giving Foran a 3-0 lead after 2 and a half innings.

Woodland would respond in the bottom of the 3rd when Max Martin reached on an error and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and would score on a Tyler DeCresenzo single to right, closing the Foran lead to 3-1 after 3.

In the top of the 4th, Woodland’s Belcher placed a 1-2 pitch off Worzel into right field for a lead off single. Foran starter Zach Worzel induced one of 2 double play’s on the day, doubling off Belcher on an infield pop out, then retiring Woodland on a 3 pitch strike out.

Foran tacked on a much-needed insurance run in the top of the 5th inning when Conlon Deshaine laced a single to center to lead off the inning and would advance to second on a passed ball. Following a strikeout, sophomore Vin Hine reached on an error to short scoring Deshaine extending the Foran lead to 4-1.

Worzel would send Woodland down in order in the 5th and racked up 2 more of his 8 strikeouts in the 6th keeping the lead at 4-1 heading into the 7th.

Facing elimination, the Naugatuck Valley Champs would not go down quietly. Anthony Marsala led off with an infield single to short, followed by a double to center by Brett Lato. Woodland’s Erik Pukkinen followed with a fly ball to right that was misplayed into a double scoring Marsala making it 4-2. Worzel would then retire Max Martin on a pop out to second baseman Vin Hine. Darren Gasparri followed with a ground ball to first baseman Kasen Lanese scoring Lato to make it a one run game. With Pukkinen at third, Worzel picked up his final strikeout of the day getting Tyler Decrescenzo looking to end the game.

Winners of their last 8 of 11 games, Foran (10-12) will now travel to #17 seed New Fairfield on Wednesday for their Second Round match up. The Foran/NF winner will face the winner of #25 Weston and #9 Joel Barlow match up on Saturday.