SCC baseball : Tournament review - Shelton not going anywhere

The torch might not have been passed last Saturday afternoon when Shelton beat Amity for the SCC title, but you may be able to say it was shared.
The last time an undefeated Amity team was stopped in the SCC final - three years ago - Guilford rode that momentum (and the right arm of Will Jolin) all the way to a Class L championship.
In 2008, the Indians had a remarkable regular season run before - as the top-seed - falling to Amity in the SCC semifinals, and then getting beaten by division rival Jonathan Law in the state semifinals. The last two seasons, Guilford has not been able to keep the momentum, failing to make the state tournament in both campaigns.
The signs point to the fact that Shelton may be a bigger long-term threat to Amity's supremacy atop the SCC baseball world. You were warned, by me and by others, that Shelton was coming. Under Scott Gura last season, the Gaels marched all the way to the Class LL semifinals before falling to West Haven.
But the step from believing to achieving can be a lot trickier than it seems. After all, Shelton is in the same division (Housatonic) as Amity, and the last time the Spartans didn't win the division title, most of the current Gaels hadn't even started their T-ball careers yet.
While Shelton did knock off Amity once last season, it never could completely figure its pitching out, en route to a 17-8 final record, very solid for most, but you felt like the Gaels were close to something big, which they obviously showed in the state tournament.
"Last year, we set the bar pretty high," Gura said before the 2010 season. "We wanted to make Shelton baseball a program that would be near the top of the SCC every year, but that's easier said than done. But last year was a great first step, but we want to be more consistent from year to year."
If they could only figure out a way to get past the reigning kings, Amity.
In their two regular season meetings this season, Shelton couldn't even manage a run off Amity, losing by scores of 2-0 and 5-0, respectively. And true to their championship form, the Spartans weren't going down without a fight on Saturday.
Leading 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh, three straight walks allowed Amity to tie the game, and it looked like more heartbreak for Shelton. But not this time. Dan St. George, as gutty as they come, induced a groundout to send the game to extra innings.
Somewhat surprisingly with the state tournament looming, Amity went to Lou Concato in relief for extra innings. But in his second inning of work, Tom Carroll and Jim Pjura touched the normally untouchable Concato for back-to-back doubles, and the Gaels - barely as the Spartans rallied for a run in the bottom of the ninth - made it stand up.
Finally, Shelton had beaten Amity in a big game, and they were kings of the SCC for the first time in a decade.
"We've had a tough time winning tournament games," St. George said. "This year, coming in and beating three very good teams is a real statement for our program and I hope it continues in the state tournament."
In a single-elimination baseball tournament, obviously anything can happen. And Shelton's next loss (if there is one, the Register's Chris Hunn has predicted an Amity-Shelton Class LL final next week, and wouldn't that be a sight?) will be the final high school game for St. George and some others, including Eric Christensen, who will likely by Shelton's all-time hit leader sometime this week.
But this should not be the end, or even the beginning of the end, for Shelton baseball. Amity has done what they have done over the last decade with pitching, allowing them to win games even when their bats have an off day. And for the Gaels to make the next step long-term, that's where they will have to do it.
By the way, the reason why we started this story with sharing the SCC torch? While Amity will lose its share of players, they surely won't go very far. In fact, remember when they were undefeated and lost to Guilford in 2007? You know what they did next? Win the state championship, their second consecutive Class LL crown, of course. And there aren't many people doubting them in this year's state tourney, either.
"To beat a team like that, that's an historic win for us," Gura said. "Especially in extra innings. That's a classic. People are going to be talking about this win in Shelton for the next 20 years."
Or until they meet again.