BRISTOL, Conn. – A pair of pitchers combined to throw a perfect game for Westport, Conn., in an 8-0 victory over Saco on Sunday night during pool play at the Little League New England Regional.

Chad Knight started for Connecticut and struck out 10 of the 12 batters he faced. He struck out the side in both the third and fourth innings as part of a streak of eight straight strikeouts.

Knight was relieved by Max Popken, who finished with four strikeouts in two innings, including three in the sixth.

Saco dropped to 1-2 in pool play, while Connecticut improved to 2-0. Saco still can clinch a spot in the semifinals as one of the top four teams by winning its final pool-play game Tuesday against South Burlington, Vt. The game will be televised live on NESN at 1 p.m.

“We’re very much in the hunt, very much in the thick of moving on to get a chance to play another game,” said Saco Coach Todd Duchaine.

“We look at this as a four-game event in pool play. I mentioned it before — 2-2 is as good as 4-0 when you look at it that way. We’re 1-2 right now and we still have another game. We haven’t been 10-runned yet.”

Michael Bourgault took the loss for Saco, giving up seven earned runs while striking out four over 31/3 innings. Anthony Bracamonte allowed one hit while striking out three in the final 1 2/3 innings.

“We had two errors, but the boys from Connecticut hit the ball well,” said Duchaine.

Westport scored a run in the bottom of the first before breaking things open with a six-run second that included a two-run homer by Max Stone.

Saco opened the regional with an 11-2 loss to Lincoln, R.I., on Friday, then beat Newton, Mass., 12-1 on Saturday.

“We understand that Connecticut and Rhode Island are very, very strong with the pitching and hitting, so it’s not anything that we didn’t expect, but tonight that was an extremely good pitching performance,” said Duchaine.

 

Copy the Story Link