Lanesborough Bulldogs Win Western Mass State Title
And Bulldogs kept tacking on runs to earn an 11-0 victory over Narragansett to earn Lanesborough’s second straight Cal Ripken Western Mass State Championship.
Thomas Martin went 2-for-2 with a triple and an RBI, and Panayiotis Constantopoulos and Jack Cangelosi combined to strike out nine and allow one hit as Lanesborough earned a berth in the Cal Ripken New England Regional, July 15-22 in Chelmsford.
The Bulldogs, who won a heart-stopping, come-from-behind win to reach the final of the double-elimination tournament, needed just 3-½ innings to hand Narragansett its second loss of the tourney.
“They’re all enjoyable, but tonight we never had to look back at all,” Lanesborough coach Rick Paris said. “We jumped on them quickly with five, and we just stayed ahead. We kept putting the foot on the throttle and kept trying to score runs.”
Eight different players crossed home plate, and seven players had at least one hit for the Bulldogs, who added three in the second and three in the third.
In the first, the big blow was a two-run double down the right field line by Constantopoulos. Tristan Gardner also doubled in a run and scored, and Martin had an RBI single as Lanesborough batted around to open the game.
In the second, Oscar Low got things started by legging out the first of his two infield singles, and Josh Polumbo delivered an RBI single to right that made it 8-0.
Martin started the third with a triple to right, and Alexander Axt followed up with an RBI triple. Axt ended up scoring on a wild pitch, and Low singled, went to third on an error and scored on Landen Jamula’s sacrifice fly.
Defensively, Lanesborough committed just one error, which put a man on base to start the bottom of the fourth. But Cangelosi made sure it did not hurt by striking out the next three batters to end the game.
Cangelosi took the mound in the second to spell Constantopoulos, who struck out five but walked four and hit a man. He left the bases loaded in the first and left two on with two out for Cangelosi.
Paris said his Sunday starter was available for three innings of work on the bump on Tuesday night.
“All I knew was I needed strikes, so I went to a guy I knew would throw a lot of strikes,” Paris said. “I only had him for three innings, so I kind of wasted him putting him for one out [in the second], but I thought it was that important at that point.”
While the Bulldogs got a team effort in the field, they also got one at the plate, with production up and down the 10-player batting lineup.
“And we got production out of the bench that came in,” Paris said. “Alex [Axt] drove the ball to right field and ended up with a triple on it.
“That’s the way this team has been going. Everyone seems to pitch in a little bit.”
