06/13/2026
In last night's action 6/11/26.......
On a hot and humid summer evening Swanton 16u Babe Ruth hosted Essex. Swanton would send Gabe Grimes to the hill to start things off. Grimes would give up a leadoff single. Essex then drew a walk and then plated a run on a fielder's choice. That would be all though as Grimes would strike out the next two to end the top half of the first.
Swanton would come out looking to swing, only coming away with two groundouts and a strikeout in a quick bottom half .
After a 1-3 out to grimes to open the second, Essex would add another run by capitalizing on a single with stolen base and a few walks , before Grimes would get them to pop up to the catcher and ground out weakly to short.
Swanton once again went quickly in the second, popping out to short and then back to back strikeouts.
In the third, Essex once again found a way to tack on another single run by drawing walks, stealing bases and moving runners with ground balls. Grimes would end things though by inducing a weak pop up behind first base. Essex would take a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the third.
Swanton looked like they would come to life in the third when Sawyer Comfort had a long at bat and fought his way to an eventual single through the hole into right. Liam Labelle would follow that up with an absolute missile into right center that the CF cut off holding him to a single and sending comfort to third. Labelle would take second on the unsuccessful throw to third though. With 2 men in scoring position and no out, Swanton would send the next three hitters up to strike out, with 2 of them looking, and coming away with nothing to show.
Going into the 4th down 3-0 JF Comfort would tow the rubber for Swanton relieving Grimes. Comfort would strike out the side and Swanton seemed to gain some momentum and poised to make up for the lost opportunity the inning before.
In the bottom half of the 4th Swanton catcher Finn Chagnon drew a walk. As he was stealing second, leadoff hitter Sawyer Splonskowski put down a beautifully placed sacrifice bunt and Chagnon was off around second and chugging for third. Essex took the out at first and then threw across the diamond but Chagnon was in safely having gone from 1st to 3rd. A single by Gabe Grimes would give Swanton their first run, but back to back strikeouts to end things deflated Swanton once again. The score would be 3-1 Essex after 4 innings of play.
Essex would add two more runs to pad their lead in the top of the 5th , taking advantage of a Hit by pitch, stealing and advancing on wild pitches. A single would knock in the first run, a walk would put another in scoring position. With the lead runner advancing on another wild pitch, Essex capitalized on a fielder's choice to score the second run of the inning. Comfort would settle a bit, starting by covering home promptly after a wild pitch and getting the runner hung up in a rundown, which Swanton would successfully execute for the out. Finn Chagnon would make a perfect throw to Comfort to the third base side of home to get the play started for out #2. Comfort would finally get the last out freezing the batter for strike 3.
Bottom half of the 5th would see Swanton go quickly 1,2,3 two of those by strikeout at the hands of a pitching change.
Essex pulled away completely in the 6th , by taking advantage of sloppy play by Swanton and free passes. To their credit they did steal every base they could to capitalize. They didn't have a hit in the inning but moved runners well.
Swanton would attempt a rally in the bottom half of 6 when Liam Labelle once again barreled up the ball and launched it deep over the left fielder's head in left center. Labelle would end up on second with a leadoff double. After a strikeout, Bentley Brown would draw a walk and end up stealing second. After another walk to Kayden Marinoff, Brown would get caught trying to advance on a ball that got loose from the catcher. A Hit by pitch to Finn Chagnon though would give Swanton another man in scoring position and two on again. After another great at bat by Sawyer Splonskowski, he would eventually ground out to end things for Swanton.
Sawyer Comfort would come in for Swanton to relieve his older brother In the 7th. He would give up a leadoff single , before issuing 2 strikeouts ( one looking) and a walk. He would get the final out of top half grounding the batter out to second.
One final opportunity for Swanton in the bottom of the 7th would see Gabe Grimes poke his second hit of the game up the middle , JF Comfort walk, and then a single to left by Josh Garrant, scoring Grimes. JF Comfort would get thrown out at 3rd advancing. Essex pitcher would get the next two batters to ground out and pop up to the pitcher to end the game. Despite our hitting Essex, the mistakes, walks, and Essex base running was simply too much to overcome. Essex pitching was stingy and efficient when it had to be. Essex leaves Swanton and heads down I-89 with a 10-3 victory. Swanton falls to 0-2 and will travel to Milton Monday 6/15 for a 6 pm start.
Swanton pitchers:
Gabe Grimes - 3 IP, 2H, 3 runs/3 ER, 2K, 5 BB
JF Comfort - 3IP, 1H, 6 runs/3 ER, 5K, 4 BB
Sawyer Comfort - 1 IP, 1 run/ 1 ER, 2 K, 1 BB
Offensive stars:
Liam Labelle 2-2 (dbl, single) 1 Run
Gabe Grimes 2-3 ( 2 singles), RBI, Run , 2 sb
Josh Garrant 1-3, RBI
Sawyer Comfort 1-3
