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The Batter's Box provides the latest baseball news coverage of the area's top teams, prospects and happenings from around Connecticut's diamond.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Can Anyone Beat Amity?

Amity heads into the postseason in the same spot it began the year — at the top.

The Spartans’ 8-1 win over Law Friday finished off an undefeated regular-season campaign and Amity remains the No. 1 team in the Register Top 10 poll for the seventh straight week.

In hopes of capturing their fourth conference title, the Spartans open up the Southern Connecticut Conference playoffs today against North Haven.

So what does it take to knock off the top team in the state?

“You have to play a perfect game against them,” Shelton coach Scott Gura said. “You have to have a superb pitching performance and hope they make a mistake. They don’t have many weaknesses. Dan St. George pitched one of the best games of his career against them and we still got beat by two runs.”

TOP 10 BASEBALL POLL

Even a gem like the one St. George threw isn’t enough, because runs are so difficult to come by against the Spartans right-handed tandem of Joe Ciancola and Louis Concato. Amity’s nearly untouchable pitching has allowed it to squeeze out wins like their 2-0 victory over the Gaels and Foran, along with their 3-2 wins they pulled out against Branford and Notre Dame-West Haven.

The Spartans haven’t given up more than five runs in a game this season.

“Our pitching has kept us in games,” Amity coach Sal Coppola said. “We’ve been able to have an off day and still come out on top.”

Meanwhile, the Spartans lineup isn’t one to overlook. There may not be one name that highlights the order, but from one through nine, there are no easy outs. Amity has proven it could put runs on the board. The Spartans scored 38 runs during one three-game stretch and also scored 12 runs in a win over the Green Knights and a season-high 15 runs against Lyman Hall.

So will Amity lose this season?

Law coach Dennis Sweeney, whose team saw its eight-game winning streak snapped by Amity Friday, took a long pause.

“You have to go out hard,” Sweeney said. “Sal does a great job and prepares his team for success. It will be very difficult, but it could happen.”

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