Pittsfield Babe Ruth 15s Fall to Braintree in Pool Play
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Connor Grieve struck out eight hitters and allowed two hits in 5 and two-thirds innings Saturday night to pitch the Braintree Babe Ruth 15-year-old All-Stars to a 5-1 win over Pittsfield in the New England Regional Championship at Wahconah Park.
The win ties Braintree with Pittsfield for second place in the eight-team tournament’s National pool. Both teams are 1-1 with a game left to play on Sunday.
After the completion of pool play on Sunday, the second- and third-place teams in each pool advance to Monday’s quarter-finals with the two pool winners getting a bye into Tuesday’s semi-finals.
Pittsfield, which cruised to a dominating 14-1 win in its opener on Friday night, struggled to string together good at-bats against Grieve and reliever Colvin Daley.
“Two hits is not going to do it,” Pittsfield manager Elmar Uy said. “One run in the first inning and then silence from there on out – not ideal, obviously.
“It’s a different story than yesterday, that’s for sure. We had some key two-out hitting yesterday. Today, we just couldn’t get the bat on the ball enough. It’s a tough one. But we’re gonna bounce back tomorrow.”
The designated home team, the tournament hosts jumped ahead in their first appearance at Wahconah Park.
Quentin Christopher led off the game by reaching on an error and moved into scoring position when Jack Abel drew a walk.
But Grieve struck out the next two to keep both runners in place before Connor Devine was able to rope a single into right-center to drive in Christopher and make it a 1-0 game.
Grieve retired the next Pittsfield hitter with his third strikeout of the inning to strand runners at second and third.
“He was pumping the zone, but it was nothing these guys haven’t seen before,” Uy said. “They’ve seen the velocity. They’ve been seeing people dicing in some curveballs here and there. It’s nothing out of the ordinary for us, really.”
Pittsfield starter Simon Mele retired Braintree in order in the bottom of the first, thanks in part to Devine’s throw to second to catch a runner stealing.
But after the sun delay between the first and second innings, Braintree got on the board in its second time at-bat.
The “home” team had three hits in the inning, but a Pittsfield error helped open the door.
In the fourth, Braintree scored four times. Jack Cohen had the big blow, a two-run single to left field to put his team on top by four runs.
Pittsfield managed just two runners in the second through sixth innings and got into scoring position just once, when Christopher reached on a fielder's choice and moved up on a ground ball for the second out of the inning in the third.
Braintree had a prime chance to break the game open in the bottom of the sixth.
Pittsfield reliever Matt Egan got the first hitter swinging but walked the next two, leading Uy to make the call to Konnor Dugan from the bench.
Dugan then walked the first man he saw but retired the next two on strikeouts to keep Pittsfield in the game going to the top of the seventh.
In that seventh, Pittsfield drew a couple of walks to have runners at first and second with one out, but Braintree turned a double play to end the game.
Uy said his team has to quickly put Saturday’s game out of its mind in order to get ready for Sunday’s game against Connecticut State Champion Norwalk, which leads the pool with a record of 2-0.
“Take the positives away from today,” Uy said. “I mean, Konnor Dugan came out cold and came in in a tough spot and shut them down with those two strikeouts.
“We lost to Norwalk in the [13-year-old] championship in the regionals two years ago, so this is redemption for our boys. They want this one, big.”
