Defense Shines in 3-3 Tie to FCDS

The Middle School Blue Baseball team put up an impressive performance against a seasoned Fairfield Country Day School Crusader team on Monday afternoon. The NCCS defense put out an excellent performance in the early going behind their pitcher Zach Britt-Friedman. Facing the top of FCDS’ lineup, the Cougars were able to hold off some running threats with a strong throw from Ethan Brown-Touissant to an outstretched Fletcher Londa at first and a brillant heads up play by catcher Jim Golden who threw a dart to catch a Crusader runner stealing 3rd. Impressive defense led to offense for NCCS who got on the scoring column first in the top of the 2nd. Behind good at bats from Zach Britt-Friedman, Jim Golden, Connor Malin, Marin Gokgol-Kline, Roman Massey, and Nate Berhe the Cougars were able to walk their way to a 1-0 lead. The bottom of the 2nd was more of the same as the Cougars continued to make defensive plays including a nice ground out throw from shortstop Juan-Carlos Bowman to Luke Gutierrez. NCCS extended their lead in the top of the 3rd behind good at bats from Hudson Sonesson, Fletcher Londa and Ethan Brown-Toussaint and superb baserunning by Juan-Carlos Bowman to take a 3-0 lead. The Crusaders closed the gap in the bottom of the third scoring two runs after an impressive hit. That didn’t stop the Cougars’ defense as they quickly responded with a huge double play from Zach Britt-Friedman who caught a pop fly and threw out a runner tagging up at 2nd. After a slow start in the 4th, the Cougars were able to hang on in the final inning behind pitchers Fletcher Londa and Juan-Carlos Bowman, and 2nd baseman Marin Gokgol-Kline who made a clutch ground out play to secure the tie. The Middle School Blue Baseball team looks to have another strong outing in their final game against St. Luke’s School next Monday. Go Cougars!