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North End Starts La Festa Baseball Exchange with Win at North Adams

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires.com Sports
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Matthew Griffin struck out 12 and overcame a rough start to earn a complete game 11-5 win for the North End Dodgers in the opening game of the La Festa Baseball Exchange against North Adams at Joe Wolfe Field on Saturday.
 
Joe Brienze went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles and two runs batted in to pace the Dodgers, who overcame a 5-0 deficit after two innings.
 
The two teams will meet again on Sunday morning at 10:30 before the scene shifts to Boston in two weeks for the annual trip east for the North Adams squad.
 
The home team got off to a fast start in the opener.
 
Ethan Denette started the first with a one-out single and stole second ahead of Lucas Hamilton’s base hit. Hamilton took second on the throw on the play and scored when Ethan Sherman launched a double deep to right to make it 2-0.
 
Sherman scored one batter later when Brayden Canales singled up the middle, and coach Tito Sniezek’s team had a 3-0 lead.
 
North Adams stretched its margin in the second thanks to RBI singles from Sherman and Canales.
 
But Griffin did not allow a baserunner past second base the rest of the way and allowed just one hit over the next five innings.
 
Meanwhile, his offense gave him a pair of runs in the top of the third and five in the top of the fourth to take the lead.
 
Anthony Sapienza and Brienze each had an RBI during the winning rally.
 
The Dodgers picked up a pair of insurance runs in the fifth and two more in the top of the seventh when Richard Wells hit a two-run single.
 
Although the teams combined for a handful of errors, the game also had a number of defensive gems.
 
Catchers Brienze and Jules Feliciano each went well into Joe Wolfe’s expansive foul territory to run down fly balls for their respective teams.
 
And Feliciano had a pair of assists on a rare 2-6-2-5 double play to end the top of the seventh as North Adams caught a pair of runners attempting to pull off a delayed double steal of second and home.
 
 
VideoGeorge Canales throws out one of the first pitches to his grandson Brayden prior to the start of Saturday’s La Festa Baseball Exchange between North Adams and the North End Dodgers of Boston at Joe Wolfe Field. NA Mayor Jennifer Macksey also threw out a first pitch.
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New York Times Bestselling Author to Speak at MCLA's MOSAIC

NORTH ADAMS, MASS. — The Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) will host a special lecture, "The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Countercultural Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary," featuring New York Times bestselling author Susannah Cahalan. 
 
The event will take place on April 9 at 5:30 p.m. at the MOSAIC Event Space on 49 Main St., North  Adams. This event is free and open to the public. 
 
According to a press release:
 
Presented as part of the Politics of the Visual: Lecture Series in Visual Culture, this talk will explore the legacy of Rosemary Woodruff Leary, a key but often overlooked figure in the 1960s counterculture movement. 
 
Known primarily as the wife of Timothy Leary, Rosemary played a pivotal role in the psychedelic movement, from her participation in peyote ceremonies with Beat artists to her involvement in Leary's infamous acid commune in Millbrook, NY, and her eventual status as an international fugitive. Drawing from archival materials and an unfinished memoir, Cahalan will reconstruct Rosemary's journey, shedding light on her contributions to the cultural and political landscape of the era. 
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