Fairfield Legion Program Looking To Re-Establish Itself As a Force

The Fairfield American Legion program has been in a state of flux since former coach Ed Pikor passed away in his sleep two years ago at the still young age of 56.

Given his background as a former batting practice pitcher for the New York Mets and minor league scout, Pikor had a knack for convincing youngsters in town to stick with the Legion team.

Now many of the best players are pulled away from Legion ball by the lure of top AAU programs that offer the enticement of more games. Legion teams typically play between 30-40 games while some AAU teams load up as many as 60.

Rob Ferrara, Billy Malone, Tom Nagy and Nick Rossomando - four of the core players on Fairfield Ludlowe's FCIAC championship team - are playing for Baseball U, an elite AAU club in the area.

"It is a little bit frustrating," Fairfield Legion coach Ed Conway said, "but if a kid makes a decision to go that route, you just got to say, 'Good luck' "

After making the state tournament in 2008, the senior team slipped to 12-15 last year - not awful - but the junior club failed to win a single game, going 0-27, and that obviously is not acceptable.

The strength of this year's senior team probably is its pitching.

Barlow's Tyler Stirling and Ludlowe's Avery Salverson are the aces on a staff that also includes Barlow's Logan Berer, Hopkins' Peter McGrath and Fairfield Prep's Jimmy Dowd.

Warde ace Jake Rasner, also headed to Salve Regina, recently joined the team, giving the club another arm.

 "We got to have a good season this year and really put our name out there," said outfielder Tyler Colby, who is coming of an all-state season at Barlow and is headed to Salve Regina University in Rhode Island in the fall. 

"We have good talent. Even still, everyone needs to step it a up a little bit more to really put our name out there."

With a number of underclassmen on the roster, Fairfield's senior team has gotten off to a 4-7 start, including 2-5 in zone play, heading into Friday's game against Westport, but the junior club already has won three games.

The senior squad went 1-3 in a competitive tournament last weekend in Westchester, New York in which it saw some top-flight pitching. Salverson was the winning pitcher in the one game Fairfield won.

"Maybe we need to start winning a little bit more," said first baseman-pitcher Alex Copoziello, another graduating senior who played his high school ball at Ludlowe. "If we start going to the playoffs more often, maybe they'll come here."

Still, Conway, who played at Sacred Heart University under Joe Reitano in the 1980s, believes he has the infrastructure in place to get things turned around.

In his first full season as coach of the senior team, Conway is assisted by Jeff Rago, the varsity baseball coach at Barlow, and Fairfield Warde JV coach Duncan Della Volpe.

A state employee, Conway has been proactive, bringing a level of organization that might have been lacking last year.

He conducted tryouts in January and February - rather than wait until June, as some Legion programs do - to get kids to commit early.

Conway also brainstormed with Sacred Heart coach Nick Giaquinto about ways to improve the Fairfield Legion program. Pioneers assistant Wayne Mazzoni agreed to come aboard as a roving instructor for the senior and junior clubs.

J.J. Edwards, who just finished a four-year career with the Pioneers, is the head coach of the junior team.

"We believe with the coaching, we got the kids going in the right direction," Conway said. "The junior team is 3-5. J.J. Edwards has those kids playing really good baseball."

Conway already has gotten compliments from the coaches of Greenwich and Trumbull - two powerhouse Legion teams -- about Fairfield's turnaround.

He is especially proud of former Warde and Fairfield Legion player Kyle Burns, who made the UConn team as a freshman walkon last season - something only three of about 100 tryouts accomplished.

"Even though we didn't make the state tournament last year, that was a great success story," Conway said. "The kid worked hard. We got him to the next level."

Colby thinks Legion ball has a lot to offer.

"This is local," he said. "I'm playing with guys from my high school. I'm playing with guys from the area that I know. This really fits my schedule for the summer, which is my I did it."

"We're playing all the other high school kids," Cappoziello added. "I think it's very strong competition."

Like some Legion teams, Conway had troubling fielding a full team early in the campaign because of banquets and academic requirements. For a couple games, he had a mere 10 players in uniform.

Colby, one of the club's best hitters, has missed the past few contests with a hand injury. He hopes to return next week. Friday starts an intensive stretch in which the team will be playing almost every day until the end of the season on July 17.

When he has a full compliment of players, Conway thinks his club can be dangerous. The goal is make the state tournament, and 15 wins in zone play are required to accomplish that. He is hoping to add some non-zone games later in the season.

"I think we can get close," Conway said. "If we don't,  our main goal is to get these kids better. If we can get these kids to go back to their high school programs as better players, then we've done a good job."