TORRINGTON – The Torrington Tiger American Legion baseball team opened the season with a doubleheader Sunday split with the Gillette Rustlers.

Both games featured comebacks by the Tigers with Torrington taking game one, 11-6 but falling 11-7 in game two.

“Overall, I’m pretty happy with how it ended up,” coach Kyle Nighswonger said. “When you come out and open the season against a team that is 10 games in and come out and win fairly handily in game one. In game two you give up too many runs in two innings. That’s the difference in the game right there.”

In game one, it didn’t take long for the Tigers to get on the scoreboard.

After working around a leadoff hit batsman, Torrington recorded three straight outs, while Cameron Murphy opened the home half first with a double. A throwing error by Gillette allowed Murphy to come around and score the team’s first run of the season on the same play.

“I like to get aggressive and have those boys swing the bat a lot,” Nighswonger said. “The first game, we swung the bat really well and put the ball in play. We forced the other team to run it. We are pretty aggressive on the bases. The first run of the year was scored on a base hit. It was a hustle play, that’s all it came down to.”

Torrington added one more run when Dylan Dreiling scored on a failed rundown attempt.

Gillette pounced in the top of the third with five runs. Pitcher Sam Firminhac came on in relief of starter Caeden Riley and allowed only one run the remainder of the game.

“We like to call that being effectively wild,” Nighswonger said. “Sam came in and did a great job. He found the strike zone when he had to. He got a head in the count and saw a lot of success with that. Coming in and not have a lot notice and getting the job done was good to see.”

Being aggressive is something Nighswonger has preached this spring.

Meanwhile at the plate, Torrington countered with eight runs in the bottom of the fourth to regain the lead.

The Tigers sent 11 batters to the plate that inning.

Tristan Kingsley tied the game with a bases loaded walk, and a wild pitch put the Tigers back in front for good.

In game two, it was Gillette who struck first courtesy of a wild pitch, putting the Rustlers on top 1-0.

The visitors added to their lead in the top of the second.

Gillette added four two-out runs, following a questionable overturned dead ball call, taking a controlling 6-0 lead.

“It is what it is,” Nighswonger said. “We can’t change how it goes, but it comes back to those mental errors that we could have done a little bit better.”

In the bottom of the third, Torrington got the bats going with two outs on the scoreboard.

Murphy’s sparked a two-out rally, scoring four runs.

In the fourth inning, it was Murphy again who got the bats going. This time it was a one-out single. Jackson Jones worked a walk, and Firminhac singled, driving in two runs to tie the game at six.

The score remained the same until the top of the sixth inning when Gillette broke the tie with a single followed by a Tiger error. The Rustlers added three more runs in the frame and never surrendered the lead again.

“It was promising,” Nighswonger said of the doubleheader. “There are a lot more positives than negatives today.”

The Tigers are back in action at home on Tuesday, May 21, against Douglas. First pitch of the twin bill is scheduled for 6 p.m.