by Scott Dickens

Congratulations New Britain Rock Cats… our 2023 CTL Champions. The Rock Cats swept the Wolcott Terryville Scrappers in the championship, winning the first two games of our best of 3 championship series. This is the first CTL Championship for the Rock Cats, who prevented the Scrappers (formally the Black Sox) from repeating as CTL Champions. The Rock Cats went on an impressive run the second half of the season. Starting with their 9-0 win over the Enfield Patriots at Dunkin’ Donuts Park on Jun 30th… the Rock Cats never lost another CTL game this year. They went on to win the next 9 regular season games, and all 4 of their playoff games for a  total 13 game winning streak. This amazing run also saw the Rock cats only giving up 4 runs in those 13 games, compared to the 84 runs they scored. It was domination from the end of June through the playoffs. This might be the most impressive stretch in CTL history… we’ll have to look back and compare. Before the 13 game win streak, the Rock Cats were 4W-5L-1T.

The Rock Cats in the playoffs first defeated the Bristol Shock in a tough 2-0 game at Beehive in New Britain. With all the rain and field cancelations, we were scrambling to find places to play and get our games in… and the Rock Cats ended up getting their home field. It was a close game throughout. Bristol had chances to score, but couldn’t capitalize. Both the Shock and Rock Cats each only had 5 hits that game, but the Cats were able to push across their runs on a sac fly by Guzman, and a Mike Gajda rbi single. The Shock’s Mark Creamer and Howard Rebhun threw great on the losing side, while Nick Polizonos was solid as usual throwing 5 innings of shutout baseball. Matt Martinez threw one inning in relief to hold the Shock, and Joe Rivera came in to shut the door in the 7th by striking out the side.

The Rock Cats second playoff game was against the CTL top seed entering the playoffs and definite favorite, the Wolcott Terryville Scrappers. Unfortunately for the Scrappers, with the rain pushing back the schedule and one of their players playing in the MLB HR Derby X,  they were missing quite a few players. The Rock Cats came ready and knocked the Scrappers into the elimination bracket with an 8-1 win. With two outs in the top of the second inning, the Rock Cats took advantage of some walks, singles, passed balls, and defensive miscues to score 5 runs. This was all they would need as Jakari Pellegrini would go the distance getting the win.

Would Scrappers would get their chance at revenge in the finals? After being knocked by the Rock Cats into the elimination bracket final, the Scrappers had to first get past the hot Bristol Shock, who had just eliminated the 3 seeded Rocky Hill Rockies, and the 4th seeded Patriots in their last 2 games. In a pitchers duel, the Shock and Scrappers battled scoreless into the bottom of the 6th. In the sixth, the Scrappers finally pushed across two runs, and held off the Shock in the top of the 7th to end their season.

On to the Championship! The preseason favorite, regular seasons best team, and top seed entering the playoffs… The Wolcott Terryville Scrappers would seem to be the favorite heading into the championship. But they would be matching up with a team that hadn’t lost a game in a month and a half, and had only let 2 runs score in that stretch. Game 1 of the best of three Championship series was a fantastic game. In the bottom of the first inning, the Rock Cats would strike first with Jarai Bolden going opposite field with a rocket home run over the fence next to the scoreboard in right field, giving the Rock Cats a 2-0 lead. Later in the forth inning, Eric Schlitter would also hit a 2 runs home run to right field, this one a high flying no doubter. Rarely have we seen home runs hit in games at Muzzy field since the league’s switch to wood bats in 2012, and to see 2 in one game is amazing. In the bottom of the fifth, Jarai Bolden struck again with an rbi single putting the Rock Cats up for good. Matt Martinez came in to get the 2 inning save, and the Rock Cats were up 1-0 in the championship series. Derek Duffy pitched well in the loss, striking out 7. It was a risky move for the Rock Cats not bringing in their lights out closer, Joe Rivera in to close out game 1… but Kenny Noyola and the Rock Cats had a plan and it worked.

Game 2 of the championship was not like game one. The Rock Cats had saved Joe Rivera, their usual closer to get the start in game 2, and it was a good move. Joe Rivera dominated. Joe threw a complete game 5 hit shutout, while striking out an amazing 14 batters. At the plate, Jakari Pellegrini had 3 hits and 2 rbi, while Bolden again had 2 hits and 2 more RBI. Joe struck out Schlitter to end game two of the championship and the celebration ensured. An amazing game on the mound by Joe Rivera, an amazing day at the plate for Jarai Bolden with 4 hits and 5 RBI. Congrats Rock Cats!

For all the photos and some videos from the CTL Championship series… click the link