Great Barrington, Dalton-Hinsdale Stay Alive in Little League 12-Year-Old Tourney
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. -- Gabe Davis and Zack Archambault hit back-to-back home runs to lead the Dalton-Hinsdale Little League 12-year-old All-Stars to a 6-3 win over North Adams in the District 1 tournament on Saturday at Olympia Meadow.
Archambault was one of three Dalton pitchers to combine on a one-hitter and send their team to Sunday afternoon's losers-bracket game against host Great Barrington, a 15-3 winner over Adams-Cheshire on Saturday afternoon.
North Adams, which lost its opener in the double-elimination tournament via the 10-run "mercy" rule, jumped out to a 2-0 lead on Saturday afternoon, and after Dalton cut that lead in half in the top of the fourth, Nick Mroz scored on a wild pitch to again make it a two-run game.
But in the top of the fifth, the wheels came off for North Adams starter Brandon O'Donovan, who was stellar over the first four innings.
The winning rally started with a walk drawn by Drew Wendling in the nine hole.
But O'Donovan got the next two batters to ground out, leaving a man on first with two out for Davis.
Davis crushed a 1-0 offering over the right field fence to tie the game.
Archambault followed by taking a 2-0 pitch over the fence to give Dalton a 4-3 lead.
The designated visitors tacked on annother run when Xavier Wellington reached on a single and scored on Quinn Gallagher's double to make it 5-3.
The final run came in the sixth, again with two out, when Davis drove in Brian Breitmaier from third base.
By then, O'Donovan had left the game after striking out four and allowing seven hits over 4-2/3 innings.
"Brandon came out and kept them off balance," North Adams coach Chris Marsh said. "He's definitely not over-powering, but he was throwing strikes, and he has a pretty decent change-up. I guess slower than slow is better against some of these teams.
"I probably could have taken him out after the first home run, but like I told him, after pitching the way he did for the first four innings, it was his game. He deserved to be out there."
For Dalton-Hinsdale, Archambault struck out eight while allowing two earned runs in 3-2/3 innings.
The first run came in the first inning. North Adams' Logan Briggs reached on an error, moved up on a walk to Andrew Levesque and a passed ball and scored on a wild pitch.
In the second, Natal Paredes reached on a walk, stole second and came home on Cody Dewey's double to center field.
In the fourth, Mroz reached on walk moved to second on a wild pitch and went to third on Dylan Crockwell's sacrifice bunt. A wild pitch then sent Mroz home to give North Adams a 3-1 lead at the time.
Gallagher and Dan Wilson combined to pitch 2-1/3 inning of no-hit relief to keep Dalton-Hinsdale's hopes alive in the tournament.
To get out of the weekend, Dalton will have to get past Great Barrington, which batted around twice in dismissing Adams-Cheshire in four innings on Saturday.
The tournament hosts and designated visitors for the game broke things open with a five-run second inning to take a 7-0 lead.
Jackson Blanchard doubled and Nick Pectal (3-for-3, three runs scored) tripled in that rally.
Adams-Cheshire got off the mat to score three in the bottom of the second thanks to four straight singles by Aaron Bush, Carson Meczywor, Caleb Harrington and Zack Lillie and an RBI single from Luc Trembley.
But Great Barrington added five in the third. Jack Carpenter (2-for-3, three RBIs) hit a two-run homer, and Zack Lupiani (3-for-4, three runs scored) added an RBI double.
Great Barrington scored three in the top of the fourth to put the game out of reach.
Adams did ge men on base in the bottom of the inning, gettting as far as third before Lupiani closed the door. Lupiani went to the mound to start the fourth in relief of Kolby Bleau, who struck out three in three innings of work.
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