Lanesborough 11U Bulldogs Impressive in Win Over 12-Year-Olds
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Everything worked out perfectly for the Lanesborough Bulldogs 11-year-olds on Tuesday night -- especially their coach's plan.
"I've been scheduling a lot of 12-year-old games," Rick Paris said after his team beat the Bennington, Vt., 12-year-old all-stars, 3-1, at Bud Anderson Field. "The way I look at it is, it's tougher competition.
"We want to play tougher competition. We want to see harder throwers. We want to see some balls put in play, so we can play defensively. ... We think our pitching is our strong suit, our pitching and our defense, and we figure if we can pitch against older kids who put the ball in play, we'll be able to work our defense.
"If we're not geting balls hit at us, all the games in the world aren't going to help our defense."
All the work the Bulldogs (4-4) have gotten appears to be paying off. Lanesborough committed no errors behind its three pitchers, who surrendered just five hits in the win.
The Bulldogs even turned a fourth-inning double play to help keep it a scoreless game at the time.
Pitcher Landen Jamula speared a hot shot up the middle and delivered to shortstop Oscar Low at second. Low pivoted to first baseman Roberto Barron to just get the batter and end the inning.
Sparked by that defensive gem, Lanesborough rallied for two runs in the bottom of the fourth.
Jamula got things started when he reached on an error. Two batters later, Josh Polumbo drew a walk to get Jamula into scoring position.
Barron drove home Jamula with a double to right center. But Polumbo was thrown out at the plate when Bennington second baseman Austin Grogan made a perfect relay to Quinton McIntire.
Jack Cangelosi then followed with a double to drive in Barron and make it 2-0.
The Bulldogs stretched their lead in the fifth.
Tristan Gardner led off with an infield single. A passed ball got him to second. Then he stole third and came home on an errant throw.
Bennington got on the board in the sixth with a two-out rally.
Sam Wilkins reached on an infield single and moved up on a passed ball. Grogan then got an infield single of his own to put runners at the corners.
The Bulldogs threw through to second on a delayed double steal, and Wilkins came home to make it 3-1.
Barron then ended the game by getting the final batter to ground out.
Barron, Jamula and Cangelosi each pitched two innings. Cangelosi, the starter, struck out two while surrendering one hit and two walks.
All in all, it was an impressive outing for Lanesborough, which has three games scheduled -- two Saturday at Laston Field and one next Tuesday at Bud Anderson -- before the Cal Ripken state tournament in Pepperell the weekend of July 17.
"That was a great defensive game, a great pitching game, our pitchers pitched phenomenally," Paris said. "Our defense up the middle was spectacular."
