Adams-Cheshire Bounces Back, Pittsfield Rolls in Little League Tourney
Jasiah Brown went 3-for-4 with a triple, and Oliver Quinto was 2-for-2 with a double and a pair of RBIs as Adams-Cheshire bounced back from Saturday’s loss to Pittsfield to even its record at 1-1 in the four-team round-robin that concludes on Monday night.
In the other half of the tourney on Sunday, Pittsfield’s 12-year-old All-Stars rolled to a 15-5 win over Dalton-Hinsdale to move to 2-0.
On Monday, Pittsfield hosts Great Barrington (0-2) at Deming with a chance to sew up the No. 1 seed in the best-of-three championship series that begins on Wednesday. Meanwhile, at Clapp Park, Adams-Cheshire (1-1) and Dalton-Hinsdale (1-1) will meet to decide who else will make it to Wednesday’s playoff.
On Sunday, Adams-Cheshire used four different pitchers to secure the win.
Jackson Kirchner got the start on the mound and went 3 and one-third innings before giving the ball to Wyatt Cross. Lador Lawson pitched 1 and two-thirds innings, striking out three and pitching into the sixth inning, where Owen Manning got a game-ending strikeout.
It was a much more confident AC offense that carried the day, pounding out 14 hits and scoring seven runs in two different innings after getting shut out in the opener.
“Opening up with Pittsfield, I already knew what that was going to be like,” AC coach Steve Albareda said. “We saved pitching for Great Barrington. We’ve got pitchers for Dalton. You win those two, and then you try to scrap and claw against a good Pittsfield team.
“[Our players] can hit, when they swing. Yesterday, they were a little shell shocked. Today, we saw pitchers who we’ve seen all year. And, yeah, we’ve got power up and down.”
Manning drove in a pair of runs with a single to left, and Quinto cleared the bases with a double to right center in the AC’s first-inning rally to go up, 7-0.
Great Barrington responded in the bottom of the inning with five runs, highlighted by Brayden King’s two-run single to help make it a 7-5 game.
In the second, Adams-Cheshire rebuilt most of its lead with a four-run rally highlighted by RBI singles from Lawson and Cooper Stentiford.
But Great Barrington chipped away, picking up a run in the bottom of the second and four in the fourth, when Timothy Starczewski tripled in a run and scored.
That rally made it 11-10, Adams-Cheshire as GB pitchers Thomas Kreis and Camden King were able to put zeroes on the scoreboard. Kreis struck out 10 in 4 and one-third innings of work before King finished up.
Adams-Cheshire finally broke through again with seven runs in the top of the sixth to put the game out of reach.
Quinto got things started with his second double of the afternoon, and Brown tripled, Lawson and Stentiford doubled and Patrick Wells-Vidal singled – all with two out – to push the lead to 18-10.
GB tried to mount a two-out rally of its own in the bottom of the sixth.
Chase Brogdan reached on an error and moved up on a Julian Winters walk before Brayden King singled to left to drive in the game’s last run.
Pittsfield 15, Dalton-Hinsdale 5
Weston Wigglesworth struck out nine in three innings of work, and the Pittsfield’s offense gave him plenty of run support in clinching a berth in the championship series.
Sawyer Layne was 3-for-3 with a home run and a double, and all but two Pittsfield players got on base as they scored in double figures for the second time in a row to open the district tourney.
“And not a single strikeout,” Pittsfield coach Ty Perrault of his offense. “I couldn’t ask for better than that. There were a lot of hard outs. Dalton made a lot of great plays in the field. … They’ve played us tough for the 30 years I’ve been here. They made great plays.
“But a lot of hard outs. We hit the ball. I’m very happy with our hitting.”
And he was happy to get three strong innings from Wigglesworth, who ran into one speed bump in the bottom of the second but struck out the side in order in the first and third.
DH got to him in that second when Sully Duquette worked a walk and David Duquette crushed a home run over the center field fence to make it 11-2 at the time.
Wigglesworth then hit the next batter before settling down to strike out four in a row to end his day on the mound.
“He threw really well,” Perrault said. “He’s done a great job of not showing emotion on the mound, even on tough calls. And we’re trying to get him to do that also at the plate. Because people are going to be careful with him, and he might get frustrated if he gets hit or if he walks. And we want him to corral that. … He’s a competitor, and he wants to hit the ball hard every time.”
Perrault pulled Wigglesworth to limit his pitch count and keep him available to start Game 1 of the championship series on Wednesday.
Kody Lesser finished up on the mound for Pittsfield, striking out four.
Before he got his first K, though, Dalton-Hinsdale’s Cam Sievers, Thomas Kuzdeba and Ryker Williams went single, double, double to start the fourth inning and help their team score three more runs.
But the day belonged to Pittsfield’s offense, which got on track with a four-run second inning to take a 4-0 lead and added seven in the third, when Layne homered and Spencer Kotski doubled in a run.
Kotski (2-for-2 with a sac fly) later hit a three-run homer in Pittsfield’s four-run fifth inning.
“He’s coming along,” Perrault said of Kotski. “He’s starting to get the idea of going the other way and getting the good part of the bat on the ball. He’s going to be a big part of what we do.”
