T.J. Vallone Powers Coginchaug All-Stars Past South Windsor 12-3

With one out in the first inning, Vallone attacked the first pitch he saw from South Windsor starter David Hansen, driving it over the left-field fence to put Coginchaug ahead 1-0.

The solo shot was more than Coginchaug could manage in Saturday's 1-0 loss to South Windsor and seemed to be the spark the team needed. The team finished the game with 15 hits.

Vallone picked up his second hit of the night when he lined a two-out double to left-field in the second inning. He scored on Cole Niedmann's RBI single to make it 3-0 Coginchaug.

John John Jose struck out 10 South Windsor batters in a resilient performance, coming within one out of throwing a complete game.

"He gets stronger as the game goes on. He can throw harder in the sixth inning than he does in the first and second," Vallone said.

After Jose threw three straight fastballs to strike out South Windsor's Robert Johnson in the first inning, Johnson returned the favor in the third inning by drilling a two run blast to pull his team to within 3-2. Unrattled, Jose struck out Jay Fournier to end the inning.

Derek Labasi gave his ace some cushion in the fourth inning when he tripled to left-field and trotted home on an error by South Windsor to make it 4-2.

Jose would help his own cause in the fifth inning. After ripping a single to right he scored on a sacrifice fly by Connor Rulnick to give Coginchaug a 5-2 advantage.

South Windsor cut the lead to 5-3 in the fifth inning on a solo-home run by Zach Donahue but Coginchaug rallied to score seven runs in the sixth inning to put the game out of reach.

Ryan Genest and Vallone hit back-to-back home runs to start the inning. Then, with two men on base, Rulnick hit an RBI double and A.J. Kleczkowski followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 9-3.

James Salemme hit Coginchaug's fourth home run of the night, a two-run shot, to push the score 11-3. Ryan Genest knocked in Ryan Cross for the team's final run.

Jose overpowered the first two South Windsor batters of the sixth inning but reached his pitch limit after giving up a walk. He was relieved by Griffin Saks who struck out Isaac Bates for the games final out.

"Losing's never easy," said South Windsor manager Jason Donahue. "The thought coming in was we're in the drivers seat, we'd have to lose twice. We kind of gambled a little bit on our pitching staff with our three and four. We knew John John was going to be tough."

Both teams will be ready Wednesday.