Lyman Hall Wins Class L Baseball Championship With Dominant Performance

WALLINGFORD, CT — Led by the dominant pitching of freshman Liam Laffin and an opportunistic offense, the Lyman Hall baseball team won the CIAC Class L championship with a 3-0 victory over Guilford on Saturday afternoon at Palmer Field in Middletown.

Laffin limited Guilford to two hits in seven shutout innings. He finished with eight strikeouts and retired 17 batters in a row to end the game.

It was the third overall state championship for Lyman Hall, which also won in 1969 and 2002 in the program’s only appearances in the finals.

Laffin worked out of some trouble early in the game before dominating the rest of the way. He hit two batters in the first inning before getting Guilford senior co-captain Adam Copeland to ground out to end the threat.

Matthew Dinardo and Ralph Russo led off the top of the second with back-to-back singles for Guilford. With one out, Gennaro Pellegrino reached on a fielder’s choice to load the bases for the Grizzlies. Pellegrino ended up being the last player to reach base for Guilford.

Laffin worked out the jam by striking out Lucas Ametrano and getting Tanner Smith to pop out to left.

Lyman Hall scored a run in the bottom of the second to take a 1-0 lead.

Nate D’Amico led off with a single and moved to second on a groundout by Ryan Casey. Laffin walked, and Logan Michaels reached on an error on a sacrifice bunt attempt to load the bases. Will Quinn followed with a sacrifice fly to score D’Amico.

Laffin followed with an impressive inning, retiring the side on five pitches in the top of the third inning.

The Trojans scored two unearned runs with two outs in the bottom of the fourth to make it a 3-0 game.

Michaels got things going with a bloop single to left with two outs. Quinn reached on an error, and Ethan Rich followed with a single to right to drive in Michaels.

Owen Rich then drove in Quinn with a single to right to give Lyman Hall a 3-0 lead.

Laffin again followed with a statement inning by striking out the side in the top of the fifth.