Little League: Avon blanks New London

AVON — Another postseason game, another shutout. Avon kept rolling in the Little League Major District 7 tournament by holding yet another team scoreless as it defeated New London 7-0 at Veteran's Park on Monday evening. Avon stays in the winner's bracket and the matchup everyone expected will be played tonight at 6 p.m. after top-seeded Galion defeated Bellevue 10-0 in five innings. Even with a loss, both teams would stay alive in the double-elimination tournament. After an 11-0 no-hit win over Shelby on Sunday, Avon found the going a little rougher against New London stater Brady Thomas who held Avon to just a run in the first three innings as Allen Rodriguez walked and scored on a Vinnie La Marca two-out single. "(New London) didn't have an 11u team last year, so we really didn't know what they had on the mound after watching their No. 1 earlier," Avon coach Matt McQuality said. "He threw 85 pitches and made the most of all of them against us." That one run would be enough though as Rodriguez, Sam Ryan and Jude Zimmer combined on the 3-hit shutout with just two walks and 11 strikeouts. The only hits for New London were all singles from Kory Rowland, Braylon Harrison and Gideon Griffitts. "We knew the guys who threw the other night weren't going to go today, but everyone that pitched for us did a great job," McQuality said. "We wanted to keep everyone at 35 (pitches) because we want all hands on deck when we face Galion." Avon finally broke through against Thomas in the fourth as Charlie Horwatt singled and LarMarca reached on an error setting up a big at-bat for Adam Libeg who rifled the ball the opposite way past the first baseman sending both runners home to go up 3-0. "Yes, we were nervous," Libeg said about only having one run on the board through three innings. "It felt good. I knew if I could put the ball in play, good things could happen. We've been playing well and not giving up any runs, (which) means we've been playing some clean defense. We will have to keep doing that." Eli Berger followed by reaching on an error and Ryan drove home a pair with a single to left. After taking second on the throw home, Berger eventually scored on a pair of wild pitches by relief pitcher Braylon Harrison to take a commanding 6-0 lead. The final run came in similar fashion when Nico Sclimenti walked and came all the way around on three wild pitches to account for the final score. Contact James Brady at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.