Berkshire Force Wraps Up Successful Week for Program
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Force played in its 14th and final game Monday afternoon in the Babe Ruth Softball 16-U World Series Tournament.
The Force had won two games in the morning to reach the final of the Commissioner's Cup consolation tournament; where it lost, 9-3, to Rochester, N.H.
This Commissioner's Cup final tallied the Force’s third game of the day and gave it a record of 9-5 in the five-day tournament. To say the least, a lot of softball has been played; these girls were simply worn down by Monday afternoon, but they didn’t give up that easily.
The Force came out in the first inning and quickly tallied two runs, but Rochester responded with two more and from there they never looked back.
Although Rochester came out hitting strong, the Force’s defense did all they could to hang in there; pitching both Ashley Keegan and Julia Murphy.
"We were just physically fatigued," Force coach Jim Clary said. "The spirit was there, they were cheering and yelling, but we just ran out of gas."
Rochester scored four times in the second inning to break the 2-2 tie and added three more runs in the fourth. Berkshire got one in the top of the seventh but could not dig all the way out of the hole.
Although the Force’s journey through the 16-U World Series came to an end this afternoon, the team and coaches have a lot to be proud of as the host team of the tournament.
"Everyone that I've met with; coaches and parents from other parts of the country have been overwhelmed by the job they did here," coach Clary said about the process of hosting and putting this tournament together.
Between the outstanding number of volunteers, the coaching staff, the team, and the commissioners, the 2014 Babe Ruth Softball U-16 World Series tournament was quite the success in Coach Clary’s eyes, although his team didn’t come out on top.
Force shortstop Allie Hunt summed it all up, "It was a lot of fun; we wanted to include the other teams, cheer them on, and make friends and that’s what we did this past week."
World Series Final
It took five days of the Babe Ruth Softball World Series before someone finally was able to beat Madison County, N.C.
But they could not do it twice.
Madison County bounced back from an 8-5 loss to Lodi, Calif., in the North Carolinians' first bid to win the title — beating Lodi, 5-2, in the rematch to give Lodi its second loss in the double-elimination tourney.
Alexis Ammons had two hits and drove in a run, and Samantha Gosnell struck out five in seven innings of work in the circle to lead Madison County to its eighth win in nine outings at Gerald S. Doyle Memorial Park.
Lodi finished with two losses in the tourney — both against Madison County. Madison County won their meeting in the semifinals of the winners bracket on Sunday night. But Lodi routed Kinnelon, N.J., 9-2, on Monday morning to earn another shot at Lodi later in the day.
Browse photo galleries from several Force games here.
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