Behind a strong pitching effort from Glenn O'Brien, the Wilton Post 86 American Legion senior baseball team stopped a three-game losing streak with a 5-1 victory over the Darien/New Canaan combined squad on Wednesday night at Wilton High's varsity field.
Wilton is now 6-11 and eighth in the Zone 4 standings. Post 86 trails seventh-place Ridgefield (8-13) by percentage points.
The top-five teams at the end of the 27-game regular season advance to the state tournament.
On Wednesday night, O'Brien pitched a complete game and held Darien/New Canaan (8-12) to just one run.
The teams will play the rubber game of their three-game series today at 5:30 at Darien High School. Darien/New Canaan won the first game, 4-2, on Tuesday at home.
The Wilton American Legion junior team also picked up a win Wednesday night by beating Darien/New Canaan, 9-2, in Darien.
It was the second straight win for Post 86, which is now 13-5 and in second place in Zone 4, three games behind Stamford (16-2) with nine regular-season games remaining.
Witlon pitchers Matt D'Elisa (four and two-thirds innings), Cole Lipsky (one and one-third innings) and Kiernan Ursone (one inning) combined for the victory.
Post 86 also took the first game of the series with a 5-3 win on Tuesday evening at Wilton High School.
Starter Ryan Gabriele pitched the first four innings, and reliever Drew Floyd pitched two scoreless innings.
Wilton trailed 3-1 through two innings but got one run in the bottom of the fourth and two more in the bottom of the fifth to go ahead, 4-3. Post 86 added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth.
That victory ended a three-game losing streak for Wilton, which was swept — despite being outscored by just four runs, 8-4 — in a three-game series by league leader Stamford last week.