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Matt Koperniak HIts for the Cycle for Trinity College

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Trinity College sophomore Matt Koperniak went 5-for-5 and hit for the cycle to lift the Trinity College Bantams to a 12-2 win over the Colby College Mules College in New England Small College Athletic Conference East Division baseball action on Friday afternoon
 
Koperniak had a home run, triple, a double, and two singles. He drove in three runs, scored four times, and stole two bases.
 
The Hoosac Valley graduate leads the Bantams with a .444 batting average and has a team-best seven doubles and three home runs this spring.
 
Trinity, which went on to sweep a three-game set with Colby, is 12-10 overall and leads the NECAC’s East Division.
 
Vassar College senior Bobby Kinne (Monument Mountain) is hitting a team-best .391 and has five home runs this season for the Brewers (11-10). Kinne has stolen six bases in seven attempts and has the best fielding percentage on the team with no errors in 49 chances.
 
Chad Shade (Pittsfield) is hitting .327 with 25 stolen bases in 28 attempts at Springfield College. He also has a team-best three home runs for the 18-9-2 Pride.
 
At Vermont’s Castleton State University, the baseball team is on a six-game winning streak and leads the North Atlantic Conference with a 10-2 league record. Lenox graduate Dillon Benham is hitting .313 with 19 RBIs and a team-best eight doubles this spring. Hoosac Valley alum Matt Braman has 13 RBIs and eight stolen bases, one off the team lead in that department. Ryan Wadsworth (Mount Greylock) has a .313 on-base percentage in nine games for the Spartans this spring.
 
Taconic graduate Izaiya Mestre is putting up some strong numbers in his first year at New Haven, where he is 5-1 with a 2.35 ERA. He has struck out 33 and walked just 12 in 38-⅓ innings with one complete game. New Haven is ranked seventh in Division II nationally with a record of 24-6.
 
At UMass-Boston, Alex Carusotto (Taconic) has an ERA of 2.35 and a record of 1-0 in seven appearances out of the bullpen for the Beacons, who are ranked eighth in the nation with a record of 22-5.
 
Rob Buffis (Mount Greylock) has a 4.12 ERA and a team-best eight appearances on the mound this spring at Ithaca College, where he has helped the Bombers go 13-11.
 
Drew DeMartino (Taconic) has appeared in 15 games, starting 11, for the Hartford baseball team, which is 13-19.
 
Allie Hunt (Pittsfield) is hitting .345 with a team-best .509 slugging percentage this spring for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (17-7). She has four doubles, a triple and a home run for the Engineers, who went 4-for-4 in Liberty League games over the weekend to run their record to 7-1 in the conference.
 
Wahconah alumna Brianna Herforth is hitting .300 in six games this spring for the Becker College softball team, which is 12-10 overall and 6-2 in the New England Collegiate Conference. Earlier this month, she went 2-for-5 and drove in a run in a 4-1 win at league rival Bay Path.
 
Freshman Ashley Keegan (Taconic) has a 4-6 record and a team-best 2.70 ERA in 12 appearances this spring at Bentley University, where the Falcons are 9-22.
 
Alexa Nejaime (Monument Mountain) has nine RBIs this spring for the Regis College softball team, which is 4-14.
 
Georgetown University freshman Shannon Meisberger (Lenox) ran a personal-best time of 1 minute, .27 seconds Saturday to win the 400-meter hurdles at the George Mason University. Meisberger was one of five Hoyas to take home a title on the day.
 
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps senior Kyleigh Mann (Great Barrington) won the 800 meters at the event with a time of 2:16.55.
 
Courtney Luscier (Pittsfield), a senior at Springfield College, finished second in the 100 meters at this weekend’s Silfen Track & Field Invitational in New London, Conn. Her time of 12.36 seconds was .09 seconds off the winning time.
 
Salve Regina College junior Molly Kittler (Pittsfield) finished 17th in the 1,500 meters with a time of 6:04.70 at the Corsair Classic Track & Field Invitational.
 
Taconic graduate Dom Nda won the 100 meters in 10.75 seconds Saturday to lead UMass-Boston to a first-place finish out of 11 teams at the Mount Holyoke Spring Fling Classic.
 
At this weekend’s Coach Pollard Invitational in Bethlehem, Pa., Hoosac Valley graduate Trevor Ciempa of Merrimack College finished third in the high jump, clearing 1.95 meters.
 
Xavier University freshman Connor Meehan (Drury) finished third in the 800 meters at Friday’s Ball State Challenge, crossing the line in 1 minute, 56.68 seconds.
 
At the two-day Silfen Invitational, Aaron Weeks (Taconic) and Evan Bossio (Pittsfield) each had success for Worcester Polytechnic in the throws. Weeks placed second in the javelin with  throw of 176 feet, 10 inches; Bossio was eighth in the event in 158-9, helping the WPI men finish fourth in the meet.
 
Mount Greylock graduate Carter Stripp finished 11th in the 1,500 meters at Saturday’s SCIAC Dual Meet at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in Claremont, Calif. The junior at Pomona-Pitzer finished in 4:12.68.
 
Saturday’s men’s lacrosse game between Middlebury and Trinity in Connecticut featured Bantams senior goalie David Hamilton (Williamstown/Deerfield Academy) and Panthers junior Michael McCormack (Mount Greylock). Hamilton made 13 saves in a 13-12 Middlebury win that saw McCormack score three goals and set up another. Hamilton has appeared in all 12 games for the 4-8 Bantams, stopping 51.5 percent of the shots he has faced. McCormack is second on his team in goals with 24 and points with 35; Middlebury is 7-5 this spring.
 
The New England College men’s lax team has won 10 straight to move to 10-4 on the season, and freshmen Patrick Storie and Reilly Parker, both of Mount Greylock, have been big parts of that success. Storie scored six goals in Friday night’s 17-7 win over Emmanuel College. For the season, he has 21 goals and 13 assists in 14 games (three starts). Parker has 12 goals and eight assists.
 
Goalie Cal Filson (Mount Greylock) and the Oberlin College men’s lacrosse team are 6-7 this spring, and Filson has appeared in every game (starting 12). He has compiled a .511 save percentage.
 
Wahconah’s Quinn Caesar is second on his team in goals (14) and points (20) at AIC, where the YellowJackets are 1-12.
 
The Westfield State women’s lacrosse team is unbeaten in the MASCAC this spring, and Lucy Barrett (Mount Greylock) has appeared in 10 games for the Owls, collecting six goals and five assists to help her team go 11-2. Westfield State travels to MCLA on April 25 to face the Trailblazers.
 
At Mount Ida College, the women saw a nine-game winning streak come to an end in Saturday’s 9-7 loss at league rival St. Joseph’s’ of Maine. Alyssa Kelly (Lee) had five goals in that loss, adding to her team-best 66 goals and 98 points this spring. Earlier this spring, she set a school record for career points.
 
Sarah Stripp (Mount Greylock) has appeared in two games at defense for the Trinity College women’s lacrosse team, which is 9-4 overall and 5-3 NESCAC.
 
If you know a student-athlete who should be included in an upcoming edition of College Collage, email sports@iBerkshires.com.
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EPA Lays Out Draft Plan for PCB Remediation in Pittsfield

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Ward 4 Councilor James Conant requested the meeting be held at Herberg Middle School as his ward will be most affected. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric have a preliminary plan to remediate polychlorinated biphenyls from the city's Rest of River stretch by 2032.

"We're going to implement the remedy, move on, and in five years we can be done with the majority of the issues in Pittsfield," Project Manager Dean Tagliaferro said during a hearing on Wednesday.

"The goal is to restore the (Housatonic) river, make the river an asset. Right now, it's a liability."

The PCB-polluted "Rest of River" stretches nearly 125 miles from the confluence of the East and West Branches of the river in Pittsfield to the end of Reach 16 just before Long Island Sound in Connecticut.  The city's five-mile reach, 5A, goes from the confluence to the wastewater treatment plant and includes river channels, banks, backwaters, and 325 acres of floodplains.

The event was held at Herberg Middle School, as Ward 4 Councilor James Conant wanted to ensure that the residents who will be most affected by the cleanup didn't have to travel far.

Conant emphasized that "nothing is set in actual stone" and it will not be solidified for many months.

In February 2020, the Rest of River settlement agreement that outlines the continued cleanup was signed by the U.S. EPA, GE, the state, the city of Pittsfield, the towns of Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield, and other interested parties.

Remediation has been in progress since the 1970s, including 27 cleanups. The remedy settled in 2020 includes the removal of one million cubic yards of contaminated sediment and floodplain soils, an 89 percent reduction of downstream transport of PCBs, an upland disposal facility located near Woods Pond (which has been contested by Southern Berkshire residents) as well as offsite disposal, and the removal of two dams.

The estimated cost is about $576 million and will take about 13 years to complete once construction begins.

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