DALTON, Mass. – Will Grega struck out nine and allowed just one hit Saturday in pitching the unbeaten Great Barrington Millers to within one one of their third straight Berkshire Adult Baseball League 20-and-over Division Championship.

 

League batting champion Alex Salazar went 2-for-4 with an RBI, and the Millers scored five times in the top of the seventh to put away a 7-0 win over the Berkshire Thunder in the first game of their best-of-three title series.

 

The teams will meet again at 10 a.m. Sunday at Memorial Field in Great Barrington. If the Thunder pulls out a win, the teams will play again for all the marbles at about 1 p.m.

 

On Saturday, the Millers took the lead with two unearned runs against Berkshire’s Jake Barbarotta as he and Grega locked horns in a pitchers’ duel for six innings.

 

An error in the top of the third allowed Abdiel Cotto to score from third and give the Millers a 1-0 lead.

 

In the fifth, a pair of errors extended the inning to allow Brian Rodriguez to put a single in right field and bring home Chance O'Niel, who had reached on a one-out single.

 

The Thunder ended up with five errors in the game, putting extra strain on Barbarotta, who ended up departing with one out during the Millers’ seventh-inning rally.