Pictured: Senior Griffin Biro pitched the Blue Devils to their seventh straight win on Friday, 5-4 against Old Saybrook.
The Coginchaug baseball team enters the final week of the regular season on a seven-game winning streak after senior Griffin Biro pitched the Blue Devils to a 5-4 victory over Old Saybrook on Friday.
The Blue Devils are 14-2 and have clinched the top seed in the Shoreline Conference tournament, which starts May 24 with games at the higher-seeded teams. The brackets will be finalized later this week.
Coginchaug has games remaining against Valley Regional today in Deep River and at home Wednesday against East Hampton. The Blue Devils beat their closest challengers in the standings, H-K (12-4 record) and Valley Regional (11-4), earlier this season.
On Friday in Old Saybrook, Biro cruised through five innings of work, scattering three hits, to win his second straight start. The senior right-hander kept the Rams (5-11) off balance for the majority of the game with two strikeouts and just one walk, while the defense was exceptional behind him. Biro gave up just one earned run.
Alex Tawa (2.33 season ERA) came on to pitch the sixth inning and Connor Willet (3.23) got the final three outs for the save.
The Blue Devils, who are batting .366 as a team, had 13 hits but managed to score just five runs after leaving the bases loaded twice and stranding 13 runs. Jeremy Mangiameli was 3 for 4 and continues to lead the team in batting at .571, while Jack Konopka was 3 for 4 and Chris Carafeno contributed two hits.
Coginchaug, Haddam-Killingworth, Valley Regional, Cromwell, Hale-Ray and North Branford have secured six of the eight spots in the league tournament, with Morgan, East Hampton and Old Lyme contending for the final two spots.
Shoreline semifinal games are scheduled for May 25 at the sites of the higher seeds, with the final booked for Palmer Field in Middletown on May 28 (7pm). Portland won the championship in 2019, the last time the league tournament was held due to the pandemic.