By Andy Hutchison
WESTPORT — The Staples baseball team earned its spot in the Class LL State Tournament semifinals with a dominant win over one FCIAC rival and will try to advance again against another conference foe.
No. 11 Staples beat visiting and No. 14 Norwalk 13-2, erupting for six runs in the opening inning of the quarterfinal matchup to set the tone on Saturday.
Bruce Schlegelmilch homered and drove in five runs to lead the offensive attack. Vincent Vega and Connor Brill both had two hits and a pair of runs batted in.
The players at the top of Staples’ order, Jules Cicero, Cole Landgraf and Vega each had two hits and two runs scored. Mark Kelly and Nolan Walters both had hits and runs batted in with Walters scoring two runs and Kelly crossing home plate once.
Landgraf allowed two earned runs in five innings on the mound. He walked five and struck out seven. Lukas Snow tossed two frames of two-hit ball.
Staples will face No. 10 Fairfield Ludlowe in Tuesday’s semis at Waterbury Municipal Stadium; first pitch is at 3:30 p.m.
Andy Hutchison
Andy Hutchison has been covering school sports — including Staples athletics — as well as news and feature stories, since the 1990s. He is the sports editor at the Newtown Bee. He writes for the Monroe Sun. He was director of communications and radio color commentator for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (now Islanders) hockey team. He has won numerous writing awards, including regional and national first-place honors.
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