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Waiting to Get Easter Eggs
The kids lined up at the starting line just before the recent Easter egg hunt sponsored by Cargill Council 64, Knights of Columbus, at St. Mary Church of the Visitation in Putnam. Photo by John D. Ryan.



PUTNAM — Dozens of young children waited on the lawn at St. Mary Church of the Visitation on Providence Street, bags in hand, waiting for the Easter Bunny to come with his big basket of eggs. This time he brought a really big basket containing something special: 800 plastic eggs with candy inside.
Every year, around Eastertime, Cargill Council 64 Knights of Columbus make sure that the children from St. Mary Church of the Visitation in Putnam and Most Holy Trinity Church in Pomfret get to run out on the church lawn and collect as many eggs as they can. The Pomfret egg hunt will be held later this month.
With about 30 children participating this year, each girl and boy got to keep the candy in the eggs they found, plus a small toy or a stuffed animal to take home.
The annual event has been held at both parishes for over a decade, part of the year-round spate of youth programs sponsored by Cargill Council.
“We love doing this at Easter time,” said Cargill Council 64 Grand Knight Douglas Bergstrom. “Cargill Council has programs all year for children and young people. It’s a pleasure to make the kids happy with an event like this. We’re proud to do it.”
Cargill Council Knights put candy in the plastic eggs, bought the toys and stuffed animals, set up everything at the two parishes and ran the events.

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Loads of Fun
Left:  Brandon Marcoux, 22 months, of E. Putnam loved the chalk. Blue dress: Anya Woyasz, 8, of Berlin. Hula Hoop: Raydence Casey, 5, of Woodstock. Bottom right: Ava Lashaway, 2 1/2, of Woodstock.

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There will be a lot of baseball for the Woodstock Academy team this spring break week.
It just won’t take place very close to home.
The Centaurs went on the road last weekend, taking advantage of the vacation week for a little team vacation in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Although it won’t be all just fun.
There will be games.
“You play some teams from across the country and we’re excited,” Woodstock Academy coach Brian Murphy said prior to leaving on the trip.
Only one of the games that Woodstock Academy will play down south will actually count toward its record.
That took place on Tuesday night (the game ended too late for this edition) against Westbrook, Maine.
Murphy said the Centaurs held a two-hour practice on Monday which was followed by a doubleheader on Tuesday. They will have a morning practice and afternoon games on Wednesday and Thursday as well.
Senior Eric Preston was ready.
“I’m looking forward to it; the team is looking forward to it,” the pitcher-catcher said. The Centaurs headed south in good spirits. They finished up the week with a pair of good wins over East Lyme and Ellington to raise their record to 5-2.  Not only was Preston ready for vacation, but it appears his bat is too. The senior got off to a slow start at the plate. He was hitting just .214 coming into the week.
But Preston, who will play baseball at Assumption College next, had a break out day against Ellington April 11. He went 3-for-3 at plate, including two doubles, and knocked in four runs, raising his average to .350, in a 13-1, five-inning, mercy-rule win over Ellington at the Bentley Athletic Complex.
Preston helped the Centaurs open things up in the third inning. His two-run double ignited an inning in which the Centaurs scored all of their runs.
“That was nice to see,” Murphy said. “We’ve been waiting. Eric is a great competitor. He is the toughest on himself and we just have to get him to relax. When he relaxes and starts hitting, it’s good for us. " Preston added another two-run double in the stanza while Luke Mathewson and Jacob Hernandez also knocked in a pair of runs each. Winning pitcher Tommy Li and Doug Newton added singular RBIs.
The beneficiary of all the offense was Li who raised his record to 2-1 with a four inning, two-hit performance. He finished with six strikeouts and walked just two. “I’m going to say Tommy (who suffered from arm trouble a year ago) is back,” Murphy said. “His fastball had a little zip on it (Thursday). His curveball had some bite. They had some guys who could swing the bat but we had a big inning, jumped out, and the rest is history.”
It was a win the Centaurs needed as it came before the game with East Lyme and followed a loss to Ledyard.
The Colonels, who are ranked in some state polls, shut down Woodstock Academy, 2-0, April 10.
“I call it a ‘bounce back day’ and the beautiful thing about baseball is that you get to do it day-after-day. It’s a little like pro ball. You have no time to sweat it. They didn’t have much time to think about it. They moved on and were hungry (against Ellington),” Murphy said.
The game with Ledyard was played at the Woodstock Middle School as the Bentley Athletic Complex was just too wet to use.
Senior pitcher Ken Turner limited the Centaurs to just two hits.
Cade Walters gave Turner all the offensive support he would need, which was fortunate since it was all he would get, in the first inning. Walters hit a two-out, two-run double to put the Colonels up early.
The Centaurs put two runners on base in the bottom of the inning. Newton walked and Preston singled. After a strikeout for the second out, Nathan John ripped a ball to right field that Robbie Petriel made a nice play on to rob the Centaurs of the potential tying runs. The Centaurs had only three more runners the remainder of the way. John walked in the fourth, Hernandez singled in the fifth and Brendan Hill walked in the sixth. None of those runners got past first base.
The Centaurs finished off the week in style with a 5-2 win over East Lyme April 12. Mathewson went the distance on the mound. The senior pitched a five-hitter with six strikeouts to raise his record to 3-0. Freshman Jonathan Smith had a two-run double while Mathewson, Preston and John each had RBI singles.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy

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