HAMILTON — The Hamilton Generals are heading to a place the team has not been since 2007: The Intertown Twilight Baseball League Finals.
The top-seeded Generals clinched a berth in the championship series with a wire-to-wire 8-2 win over the Rockport Townies in a winner-take-all Game 3 on Wednesday night at Patton Park.
With the win, the Generals will take on the Manchester Essex Mariners in the ITL Finals. The best-of-five series opens up on Saturday at Patton Park in Hamilton (4 p.m.) with Game 2 switching to Memorial Field in Essex on Sunday (4 p.m.). Game 3 will be back at Patton Park on Wednesday (5:30 p.m.) and, if necessary, Game 4 will be next Saturday at Memorial Field and Game 5 next Sunday at Patton Park. The Generals are looking for their first ITL crown since 1992. The Mariners, on the other hand, are playing in their 10th straight ITL Finals and last won a league title in 2019.
Hamilton, which won Game 1 of the series and dropped Game 2, jumped out to a 2-0 in its first at-bat and never looked back.
Cam Vatour led off the contest with a single and later came around to score on a two-out base knock from Harrison O’Brien, who then stole second and scored on a Larry Saggese single.
The Townies immediately cut that lead in half with Jameson Kamm scoring on a wild pitch after leading off the frame with a double and eventually scoring on a wild pitch to make it 2-1.
But that was as close as Rockport would get as Hamilton finished strong with six runs in its final three at-bats.
The Generals scored what turned out to be the winning run in the bottom of the fourth when Chris Huggett came in on an error to make it 3-1. Carter Coffey later came in on a Vatour grounder and starting pitcher Ryan Hutchinson scored on a Hunter Wilichoski RBI single to give the Generals a commanding 5-1 lead.
That lead was enough for Hamilton’s pitchers. Ryan Hutchinson picked up the win, allowing a run in four innings of work, striking out one and allowing only four hits. Carter Coffey finished it off allowing a run in three innings of relief. His biggest outs came in the top of the sixth when Rockport put the first two batters on with singles from Joe Muzio and Kyle Nelson. But Coffey answered by striking out the side to keep his team well ahead.
Rockport got a run back in the top of the fifth when Jack Sperry singled in Jake Engel (single) to make it 5-2. The Generals, however, had an answer again with two more runs in the bottom of the frame with RBI’s from Ian Coffey on a fielder’s choice and Vatour with a base hit. Horgan scored on a bases loaded walk in the sixth to cap the scoring at 8-2.
Vatour and Horgan led the way for the Generals with two hits each. Kamm had three hits to lead the Townies.
