Pittsfield American 11-Year-Olds Win Elimination Game in Section 1 Tourney
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Jake Knauth went 2-for-3 with a double and a pair of RBIs, and the Pittsfield Little League American Division 11-year-old All-Stars stayed alive in the Section 1 tournament with a 16-1 win over Leominster on Friday night.
The Americans scored early and often, putting the game out of reach with an eight-run second inning and ending it by scoring three runs in the bottom of the third.
With the win, Pittsfield American stays alive in the double-elimination tournament’s loser’s bracket. It moves on to a road game on Saturday to stay alive in the tournament.
Just like in the District 1 tournament, where the Americans bounced back from a loss to beat the Nationals in a best-of-three series, manager Derek Demary’s squad rebounded from a setback at Westfield in Thursday’s sectional opener.
“It’s not the way we want to be,” Demary said. “It was a tough loss last night, but they came right back again, battling. The bats came alive again, and that’s the most important thing, just keep the line moving and keep hitting the ball.”
Pittsfield American batted around the “continuous lineup” in the second inning, using all 12 players in its lineup once plus a second at-bat for two players for a total of 14 plate appearances.
It went into that second inning with a 5-0 lead thanks in part to Knauth and Jeremiah Bullett, who each doubled and scored a run at the top of the lineup.
In the second, six different players had a hit, including doubles from Mason Brbovic, Jowell Malave and Lennon Greene, the last two hitting 11th and 12th, respectively for Pittsfield American.
“We made some changes,” Demary said. “It was a little difficult going through the first round to try to find some people in the bottom of the order to turn the lineup over. I think we pretty much corrected it between last night and tonight. That’s who gave us our hits last night, too, the bottom of the order.
“That’s the most important thing with the continuous batting order is to be able to be strong in the top and in the bottom.”
This is the first year Little League Baseball instituted the continuous lineup or “rotary lineup” format for the post-season. In years past, teams would hit nine players and managers were required to substitute reserve players into the game to ensure them at-bats.
While the Americans’ offense did its job to pile up the runs, Jake Merwin and Knauth did theirs to keep the visitors off the Deming Park basepaths.
Merwin allowed just a couple of walks and a hit batter while striking out three before leaving the hill with a man on second and nobody out in the top of the third.
Knauth struck out the side, but not before two pitches to the backstop and a Kyle Berthiaume single brought that runner across the plate to make it 13-1.
“Jake Merwin, he did a little practice with us before the tournament started and then went away for 10 days,” Demary said. “So I had to really get him back to game mode. And today he wanted to start.
“It was really important to throw strikes tonight, get it over the plate. Who cares if they hit it? Just throw strikes. And it worked.”
10-Year-Old Tournament
At Clapp Park on Friday night, Leominster defeated Pittsfield, 12-2, in four innings to move on in the elimination bracket of the Section 1 8- to 10-year-old Little League tournament.
Chase Albano singled in a run, and Bradley Charow singled and scored a run for the Americans.
