SteepleCats Play Final Two Home Games Of 2018 Season This Week

NORTH ADAMS, Mass —With the NECBL regular season ending on August 1st, the 2018 SteepleCats will make their final appearances at Joe Wolfe Field this week with home games on Friday and Saturday.

Starting on Friday, the SteepleCats will take on the Danbury Westerners at 6:30. Their second matchup of the season, the SteepleCats look to even the season series as the Westerners pulled off a 9-3 victory over North Adams on the opening night of the season. Yet since then both of the teams have had their struggles throughout the season, coming into the game with similar records.

Then on Saturday, North Adams will host a rare doubleheader against their long-time rival in the Keene SwampBats. With their second meeting at Joe Wolfe Field being rained out twice, the teams will square off in two seven-inning games on Saturday with the first game starting at 3:30. With the playoffs out of reach, the SteepleCats will look to play spoilers as the SwampBats are of the three teams separated by half of a game fighting for the final two playoff spots.

Following Saturday’s game, the NECBL All-Star Game will take place at Mackenzie Stadium in Holyoke, MA on August 29th. First baseman Jackson Coutts and center fielder Jeffery Brown have been chosen to play on the Northern Division roster, as they both have been key contributors to the SteepleCats offense and defense all season long. However, the final Northern Division spot has been left to the fans to vote for. The SteepleCats are calling upon the fans to help vote infielder Joe Porricelli into the All-Star Game, as his bat and glove have been a major part in the North Adams lineup. Head to www.Vote18.NECBL.com to cast your vote.

2024 Year in Review: North Adams' Year of New Life to Old Institutions

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:42AM / Thursday, January 02, 2025

President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz poses in one of the new patient rooms on 2 North at North Adams Regional Hospital.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — On March 28, 2014, the last of the 500 employees at North Adams Regional Hospital walked out the doors with little hope it would reopen. 

 

But in 2024, exactly 10 years to the day, North Adams Regional was revived through the efforts of local officials, BHS President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz, and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, who was able to get the U.S. Health and Human Services to tweak regulations that had prevented NARH from gaining "rural critical access" status.

 

It was something of a miracle for North Adams and the North Berkshire region.

 

Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, under the BHS umbrella, purchased the campus and affiliated systems when Northern Berkshire Healthcare declared bankruptcy and abruptly closed in 2014. NBH had been beset by falling admissions, reductions in Medicare and Medicaid payments, and investments that had gone sour leaving it more than $30 million in debt. 

 

BMC had renovated the building and added in other services, including an emergency satellite facility, over the decade. But it took one small revision to allow the hospital — and its name — to be restored: the federal government's new definition of a connecting highway made Route 7 a "secondary road" and dropped the distance maximum between hospitals for "mountainous" roads to 15 miles. 

 

"Today the historic opportunity to enhance the health and wellness of Northern Berkshire community is here. And we've been waiting for this moment for 10 years," Rodowicz said. "It is the key to keeping in line with our strategic plan which is to increase access and support coordinated countywide system of care." 

 

The public got to tour the fully refurbished 2 North, which had been sectioned off for nearly a decade in hopes of restoring patient beds; the official critical hospital designation came in August.