LITCHFIELD
Life is good on the baseball diamond again this summer for the Litchfield Cowboys, as they are more than holding their own in defending last year's Tri-State League championship.
The Cowboys improved to a league-best 13-1 with a ninth-inning comeback victory over the Brass City Brew on Sunday at Litchfield High School. It was the Cowboys' 11th consecutive victory, the longest winning streak in the 40-year history of the team.
No one is enjoying the success more than Kyle Weaver, the team's elder statesman who has been around since the mid-1990s and endured many ups and downs before finally winning a championship.
"There were a lot of years at the bottom, a few years in the middle and then last year, winning it all," said Weaver, a physical education teacher at Litchfield High. "It has taken us a long time to get this good. We've come full circle, so personally it has been very fulfilling."
Weaver anchored poor and middling Cowboys teams with his play at shortstop. Approaching his mid-30s, he now sees time at third base and second base with Adam Claire holding down shortstop and Mike Odenwaelder playing third when he's not pitching.
Claire, who played for Weaver at Litchfield High, plays second base at Bryant University and is one of the top players in the Tri-State League.
With Claire and center fielder Ed Pequignot, who played at the University of Massachusetts, the Cowboys have speed at the top of the lineup and are averaging nine runs a game.
Odenwaelder, the former Wamogo Regional High School All-State athlete, has been a major run producer in the cleanup spot, while left-fielder Collin Dickinson, catcher Karl Quist, right fielder Chris Blazek, Weaver, Dylan Stiles and Ben Murphy have all been clutch hitters.
Many of the players on the bench played for Weaver at Litchfield High, including Drew Gauvain, Caleb Buck, Will Katzin and Quinn McKenna.
While the offense has been powerful, pitching has carried the Cowboys.
The staff, headed by former Chicago White Sox minor leaguer Joe Serafin, gives up just two earned runs a game and is so deep that Blazek, who reached the Double A level with the Houston Astros as a relief pitcher, is rarely called upon to pitch the Cowboys out of trouble.
Serafin, a left-hander who pitched at the University of Vermont with Blazek, has been the best pitcher in the league.
Last year Serafin was promoted to the White Sox Triple-A team in Charlotte, N.C., and was a step away from the major leagues before being released.
The Cowboys were happy to pick up Serafin and pair him with last year's ace, Kevin Murray at the top of the rotation
"We enjoy playing with each other and to be able to win like we have makes it all the more satisfying," Weaver said.
LITCHFIELD — Peter Tavino showed he has a lot of life left in his legs during last week's Whites Woods Summer Cross-Country Series at the White Memorial Conservation Center.
Tavino, 60, ran the 5-K race in a time of 25:25 and did it in style, with a strong finishing kick. John Dezzutti, 65, of Lakeside and John Clock, 63, of Bantam, were among the senior finishers in the race.
The series is being held every Thursday at 6:30 p.m. and also offers races 2-K, 3-K and 4-K in distance. Sponsored by the Parks and Recreation Department and the Litchfield Track Club, it regularly draws more than 100 runners of all ages. The entry fee is $2. In the 5-K last week, Jeromie Schumacher of Morris was fourth in 17:17 and Bryan Atwood of Litchfield ninth in 18:52.
LITCHFIELD — The Rockness family and their pets were big winners in the Litchfield Historical Society's annual Independence Day pet parade on the Green.
Jodi Rockness and her daughters brought their dog, Lily, and three rabbits to the parade. Lily was named the parade's most patriotic pet and Specks the rabbit earned an award for having the longest ears.
Today, Jodi Rockness and her six girls welcome home the family patriarch, the Rev. David Rockness, pastor of the First Congregational Church of Litchfield. Rockness and members of the church spent the past two weeks on a service mission in Guatemala.
LITCHFIELD — Church bells across the country tolled 13 times on Independence Day in a salute to the original 13 colonies. It's a tradition that can trace its roots to Litchfield, as Reggie Harrison, a leader of the First Litchfield Artillery Regiment, explained during Litchfield's Fourth of July tribute on the Green.
A article written by the regiment's founder Eric Hatch, an author, and his Litchfield friend, artist Eric Sloan, for This Week magazine in 1963 inspired the bell ringing.
In their article, "Let Freedom Really Ring," Hatch and Sloan suggested a nationwide ringing of church bells at 2 p.m. on Independence Day to mark the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
The article inspired then Sen. Abraham Ribicoff to take the idea to Congress, which embraced the idea and in June 1963 approved a resolution calling for the bell-ringing.
Hatch, a veteran of World War I and II, died, perhaps fittingly, at 2:15 p.m. on July 4, 1973, after the regiment completed its annual 13-cannon salute and the church bells had rung.
Happenings in the Hills is a weekly look at life in Litchfield, Warren, Morris and Goshen. Information about people and events in the towns can be sent to John McKenna at jmckenna33@optonline.net or P.O. Box 1186, Litchfield, CT 06759.
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