WE’RE GOING STREAKING!
Mancer Mojo, Pitching Propel Cannons Over Caps, Out of CNMSBL Cellar

Newington, CT (AP)—Streak \′strêk\ n: a brief run; also an unbroken series. On Sunday at Newington’s Sacco Stadium at Alumni Field the Connecticut Cannons ended a seven-game slide and started a winning streak with their first victories since May 6. In doing so the Cannons earned a regular season series sweep against the cross-town rival Capitals in what catcher Mark Lynch, who deemed himself refocused and rededicated during the week, dubbed “The Battle to Be Best of the Worst” moving the Big Guns into seventh place in the A Division, mere percentage points behind the struggling Glastonbury Marlins (3-7; Connecticut holds the all-important tie-breaker with Newington should the teams end the season in a deadlock and earlier split a pair with Glastonbury). In the movie Major League, Indians Manager Lou Brown stated: “We won yesterday. If we win today, that's two-in-a-row and that's called a winning streak; it has happened before.” Like The Tribe and Old School’s Frank “The Tank” Ricard, these Cannons are streaking and the team enters the Independence Day break as the hottest club in the CNMSBL with a half dozen games to go. The remaining six-pack will play an important part in determining playoff positioning as the Cannons look to improve upon last season’s third-place finish. “It feels good to go out there and get a sweep especially against ‘good guy’ Dave Sacco,” Manager Matt Celio said as he spoke with reporters in his post-game press conference, vaguely veiling his venom for Newington’s skipper and his off-season antics, affronts and all-out attempts to keep the Cannons from making the move to town. “These wins were undoubtedly a few weeks in the making. We’ve improved our offensive output—the team’s batting average and on-base percentage have climbed approximately eighty points since the early portion of the season leading to an increase of more than two runs scored per game—and we’re starting to get the top-to-bottom production from our line-up that we expected. Today we put all of the pieces together and showed that we’re a tough team to beat when we play Cannons Baseball. These few weeks off should allow us to get some of our bumps and bruises taken care of and we will come back rested and ready for the stretch run. It’s going to be a lot of fun.” Here the Cannons come, boogie-dy, boogie-dy. Oh yes, they call this the streak!

Connecticut was confident coming into Sunday’s contests with Celio guaranteeing double header domination to members of Cannon Nation—a partisan Cannons crowd was on hand for the first-ever meeting between Newington’s two teams—and Leo Dionicio pledging an end to the losing streak behind pitcher Mike Patenaude. Jason Maule dug in against Newington starter Mike Karp in the top of the first and immediately drilled a double to deep centerfield. Dionicio, batting second, expressed his affinity for this spot in the line-up before the game: “I love the number two hole and I plan to go deep in it. I feel right at home behind Maule and I fully expect to make some noise from the two-hole today. There's a lot of little boy in me right now.” Wow! He didn’t disappoint with a run-scoring double that gave the Cannons an early 1-0 lead. In the dugout, Celio promised that Patenaude would make the spread stick and this prediction proved prophetic. Luby followed with a single that scored “The Gringo from Santo Domingo” and Chris “T-Rex” Barsa drove Luby in with a base hit of his own to stake Patenaude to a 3-0 advantage against a team Maule called “as flat as a pancake,” matching Connecticut’s largest first inning production of 2007 to this point. Patenaude, following a two hundred eleven-pitch performance last weekend that resulted in disappointing double dip losses, appeared to be at his most effective on Sunday striking out lead-off hitter Robert Hayes—the lefthander fanned at least one Capital in each inning he worked—while allowing just two base runners to reach safely over the first three frames. In the fourth and sixth innings Chris “Suck My” Corkum reached third base, on a lead-off error—the Cannons only miscue of the contest—and a one-out double respectively, but Patenaude (7 IP, 0 R, 5 H, 8 K, 0 BB) was able to work out of trouble each time. Although Karp baffled the Cannons batters for much of the afternoon—after the four-hit first he went almost exclusively to a wide array of off-speed pitches, scattering five hits over the final six frames—he was bested by Patenaude (1-3) who earned his first victory of the 2007 campaign and Connecticut’s first shutout in its two-year A Division existence. “MP was remarkable out there today,” Celio stated. “There was a lot of pop on his fastball and I know the team was excited to see him go with the heater on several two-strike counts (his eight strike outs nearly matched the total of nine he had produced over his previous twenty-four innings of pitching). He’s a smart pitcher and it was obvious he knew he could overpower the opposing hitters. The effort he has given us over the past two weekends is exactly what one would expect from the staff ace trying to stop a skid. Gritty and gutsy, it was one of his best performances in a Cannons uniform, period.”

In the nightcap, Luby matched up against Newington right hander Mel “Men In Tights” Brooks to see which ball club would be in the basement of the CNMSBL when play resumes in July. After finishing his pre-game Budweiser—a ritual the Anheuser-Busch brewing behemoth hopes to market to the Cannons many fans, especially the “Cannons Kids”—Luby implored the team to play solid defense and score him some runs and it seemed as if the Cannons took these comments to heart. Maule doubled off the 380’ sign in right to start the game, missing a home run by just a few feet, and moved to third on a Dionicio single to left prompting this post-game response from “Dominican Dreamboat” Leo: “When Maule and I stroke balls it feels great. It really gets the team excited, gets everybody up and takes us to that explosion point.” Holy cow! Luby helped his own cause by scoring Maule with a single and an error on a Mark Lynch ground ball by third baseman Liz Hurley scored Dionicio. Barsa had his second RBI of the day as he drove in Luby and Mike Weber got his first RBI of the season on a fielder’s choice that plated Lynch. Mike McGann and Celio were hit by pitches to reload the bases and John “Blue Fire” Mancini came up with a clutch, crazy and careening two-out double—his first A Division hit—down the right field line to score Weber and McGann. Maule stepped to the plate and drilled his second double of the inning, his seventh of the season and fifth in nine at bats, driving in Celio and Mancini to give Luby a healthy 8-0 advantage while at the same time establishing a new total for first inning production in ’07. Luby was touched for a run in the first on a single by catcher Noose Roppo that scored Hayes who had reached on a lead-off hit. Two runs crossed in both the fourth and fifth innings against the Cannons right hander to cut the lead to three and in the home half of the sixth James L. Brooks hit a towering three-run homer to left field, after Luby (7 IP, 8 R, 8 ER, 16 H, 1 K, 2 BB) shook off Lynch, that evened the score at eight (“Shades of Schilling,” Luby postulated post-game, referring to the Red Sox righty’s recent near no-hitter in which he shook of catcher Jason Varitek with two outs in the ninth and subsequently allowed a single). The Cannons offense, quiet since the first when fastballs once again became passé except for a McDowell walk and a Weber infield hit, came up big when it was most needed. Maule ripped a one-out seventh inning single and stole second. After McDowell was hit in the leg by a ball-on-bone pitch Luby lined a bookend single to left that scored the fleet-footed centerfielder to give the Cannons a 9-8 lead. Luby walked Sacco to start the home half for the Capitals and Brooks entered as a pinch runner. On a three and one count Luby floated a fastball to Paul Mooney who hit the ball sharply to short. Dionicio—who once again asked “Luby who?” after the game calling himself “the best shortstop on the Cannons”—flipped to a waiting “Remember the Alomar” Weber at second and he delivered a perfect toss to Barsa at first for the tailor-made 6-4-3 double play. Following a two-out walk to Jason Marquis, Luby threw some of his best pitches of the day—“a nasty knuckler and a curve that dropped off the table,” according to Lynch—and got Karp swinging to close out the victory. “Leo, Mike and Chris turned the play of the year for us,” said a smiling Luby as he emerged from the visitor’s clubhouse. “The guys played great defense out there all day and we did just enough with our bats to beat the Caps today. We’re starting to see signs of what we expected this team to be in 2007. The guys who are showing up are playing with passion and poise. It’s been fun to be on the field with the fellas. If we get this kind of effort out there each and every time we take the field then the sky’s the limit for this team. We haven’t played our best baseball yet and I think that is a scary proposition for the other teams in the league. I’m really excited for July and August.”

3-9 is a far cry from where the Connecticut Cannons expected to be heading into the slower-paced sultry days of summer. Yet with two wins on Sunday the aspirations and expectations that have persistently pursued this team have finally started to pay dividends. Celio expressed his controlled exuberance thusly: “Though I’m pleased that we are ‘streaking’ the only ‘old school’ we care about is the education we doled out to the rest of the league circa 2005 when we won our first championship. I think it’s time for our second.” Many questions were answered on Sunday as the offense put up some runs, the defense made plays and the pitching put the team in a position to win. Will the Cannons continue their winning ways when they return to action on Sunday, July 15? That remains to be seen. The rematch against first-place Bristol is sold out but the games will be televised nationally as the FOX MLB Baseball games of the week—WTIC Channel 61 in the Hartford/New Haven markets—and can be followed on the internet at ctcannons.blogspot.com. Hopefully for Cannon Nation this team can stay hot and follow Jake Taylor’s advice: win the whole f****** thing! Honey, you think KFC is still open?

Cannons News and Notes: Maule is tied for second in the CNMSBL in hits with Hartford’s Basilio Ortiz (16)…Maule’s college roommate and Nationals shortstop Mike Lombardo is first (19)…all three share the top spot in the statistical standings with seven doubles apiece; Maule’s three doubles on Sunday give him thirteen for his career moving him into sole possession of fifth place on the Cannons all-time list ahead of Andy Borst (Celio, Luby, Ed Poland, Weber)…he also edged out Poland as the team’s leader in lifetime average, .427 to .426; McDowell went hitless for the first Sunday this season…his eight free passes (six walks, two hit by pitches) lead the team; McGann donned his Washington Nationals “Get Your Red On” t-shirt, claiming the Cannons have never lost a game when he wears the undergarment…the streak stands; Patenaude leads the team in seven of thirteen statistical pitching categories (Games Pitched, Games Started, Innings Pitched, Strike Outs, Batting Average Against, Earned Run Average and Wins)…Luby leads the team in six (Hits Against, Runs Against, Earned Runs, Walks Against, Wins and Fewest Losses); Patenaude and Luby joined Brian Pinney as the Cannons pitchers with wins in ’07…no Cannons’ pitcher has a save this season; Luby (four hits, 104 total) moved past Weber (two hits, 103 total) into second place on Connecticut’s career hit list; the Cannons leapt out of last place in the CNMSBL for the first time since May 7, 2006 when they were 1-1; Luby wore an alternate navy blue belt during the double header…he plans to keep karma in his corner in upcoming contests; Dionicio’s son, Bryan, had several health scares this week (he was unexpectedly hit in the head with an errant McDowell throw as he sat in the dugout and a case of hives resulted in a trip to the emergency room); Web’s new nickname is Wes; Mike Calabrese averaged 28.5 points per game in leading his basketball team to the semifinals…McGann quipped with members of the media that this average mirrors Cal’s ’07 ERA; team doctors issued a press release stating that Poland is scheduled to have an MRI before the 4th of July holiday; votes are arriving at Cannons World Headquarters for the “Build a Perfect Cannon” promotion where fans were asked to pick body parts that would make “the ultimate Connecticut Cannon”…Maule’s torso (chest and abdominal muscles), Dionicio’s biceps, McDowell’s forearms, Celio’s calves and Mancer’s man-meat have been run-away favorites (Mancini’s “Orc Feet” have received 0% of votes at press time); Maule has tentatively agreed to terms for a Physical Education teaching position in Meriden.