image description — Michaela Hinckley was part of a dominant day by three Berkshire Force pitchers on Saturday.

Berkshire Force 12U Opens Regional with Pair of Wins; 10Us Win Title

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires.com Sports
04:04PM / Saturday, June 29, 2019Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- The Berkshire Force 12-and-under softball team opened play in the Babe Ruth New England Regional with two very different games that one very important thing in common: Each was a Force victory to give the home team the top seed going into Sunday morning’s semi-finals.

Michaela Hinckley and Amdanda Pou combined on a one-hitter in Berkshire’s 2-0 win over Burlington, Mass., in Saturday’s opener.

In the afternoon, Mia Arpante did not allow any hits in an 11-1, four-inning win over Auburn, Maine.

The victories mean that the Force will host the tourney’s fourth seed at 9 a.m. Sunday in an elimination game to get to the 2 p.m. Championship at Doyle Field.

Teams from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Connecticut are competing in five different age groups over three days this weekend, seeking a berth in the Babe Ruth World Series.

The host Force entered two teams in the regional: the 12U and 10U squads. The younger squad Saturday afternoon beat Raynham, Mass., 12-2, to win their best-of-three series, 2-0, and claim the New England Regional crown.

A.J. Pelkey went 2-for-3 with a home run, and Mia DeJesus and Madison Barber each tripled in the win for the 10U squad.

Berkshire’s Gionnah LeVardi struck out 10 in the regional title-clinching win.

The Force’s U10 team includes: Mariah Barnes, Jaezsa Bartolotta, Chelsea Capitanio, Kylie Duhamel, Madeline Harrington, Evelyn Julieano, Grace Julieano, Lillian MacDonald, Izabela Miller and Ella Stodden.

The defending regional champion Berkshire Force 12U squad sat out Friday’s action as this year’s regional got underway but wasted no time doing damage on Saturday morning.

In the top of the second against Burlington, Hickley drew a one-out walk, moved up on a wild pitch and an error and scored on a wild pitch to give herself a 1-0 lead.

In the circle, she surrendered just one hit in four innings of work. It came with two out in the bottom of the second and was followed by a walk and a wild pitch to give Burlington two runners in scoring position. But Hinckley got the next hitter to ground back to the circle, ending the threat.

Hinckely retired the side in order the next two innings, getting some help from catcher Isabella McDonald, who threw out a runner attempting to steal second in the bottom of the third.

In the top of the fourth, Pou scored after drawing a two-out walk. She stole second and came home when Arpante reached on an outfield error to make it 2-0.

Pou then went to the circle to finish the game. She earned four strikeouts in the bottom of the fifth, K’ing each batter she faced, including the one who reached on a passed ball.

In the sixth, Pou closed the game and a 1-2-3 inning with a swinging strike to protect the two-run margin.

While offense was hard to come by in the morning, Berkshire rolled up at least two runs in each inning of its afternoon contest against Auburn.

Audrina Maloney delivered the big blow early with a triple to right-center that scored Arpante in the top of the first. Maloney came home on a groundout by McDonald to make it 2-0.

Berkshire added four in the second thanks to singles from Paxton Ebling and Pou and a couple of Auburn errors.

The visitors used a walk, a stolen base, a groundout and a passed ball to pick up an unearned run against Arpante in the bottom of the second, closing to within 6-1.

But Berkshire added three in the third.

Cheyenne Goddard led off with a walk, stole second and came home on a couple of wild pitches. Brianna Lynch earned a one-out walk, moved up on a groundout and Pou’s single up the middle and scored on Arpante’s infield single.

Pou went to third on that single and scored on a wild pitch to push the lead to 9-1.

In the fourth, Maloney and McDonald each singled to start a two-run rally that pushed the lead to 10 runs, bringing the mercy rule into play.

Auburn got a runner to first with one out in the bottom of the fourth, though, thanks to a passed ball on a third strike, a sacrifice bunt and a stolen base.

But Arpante got the second out on a swinging strike and the final out on a groundout to wrap things up.

Photos from this tournament to come.

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BRTA Sees Highest Ridership to Date

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
01:46PM / Monday, August 10, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Regional Transit Authority has recorded its highest ridership in the history of the authority.

The BRTA recorded 731,444 for fiscal 2026 year, with fixed-route ridership at 666,000 passengers, paratransit (ADA) ridership at 65,000 passengers, and Link 413 ridership at 952 rides since it started earlier this year.

Administrator Kathleen Lambert and Operations Manager Benjamin Hansen said the higher ridership is likely thanks to the free fare. Free fare was first introduced to the BRTA in late 2024, this was the first full fiscal year and it won't be the last.

Lambert said she feels very good about the new number and while it's in part because of the fare free initiative, it's great to just be a service to the community.

"The point is, transit keeps more money in people's pockets if they're not paying for gas and transportation," she said. "I know there are improvements to be made, especially around frequency and different forms of opportunities to travel, and I want that to be the situation. But right now, we're kind of getting everything into shape, getting prepared for new service, and prepared for the next iteration of the RTA."

The high ridership also comes at a time of high route cancellations because of a lack of drivers. Lambert said the authority currently has 26 drivers with a goal of attaining 33 to 35. The new operating company, Keolis, is still looking for more hires. This past fiscal year, the BRTA saw 3,457 trips cancelled but hopes to have no cancellations by the end of September.

Hansen gave the ridership data at the July meeting, also showing off the new data that will be easily available on the website for anyone to view in an effort to be more transparent with the public.

The most affected routes were Route 1, the Pittsfield to North Adams Connector, and Route 2, the Pittsfield to Lee, which had more than 750 cancellations.

Although Route 1 had some of the most cancellations it still remained the most popular route with 176,123 riders through 9,729 trips. Route 34, the North Adams Loop, came in second with 127,147 riders also through 9,729 trips. Again, even though Route 2 had some of the most cancellations it came in third with 76,305 riders with 8,597 trips.

The Link413 service has also grown in ridership. Some on the board contested the start of the Link413 service, worried that the start of the service took drivers away and didn't see ridership high enough. The new data shows that the ridership almost doubled from the previous month from 179 in May to 313 in June.

Lambert also noted it was not possible to cut the service as it was properly approved and if they had to cut, they would have to give back their portion of the grant money, which would be impossible. She mentioned this to the group since former board member Rene Wood and others had asked to see what was possible with the service and when it was accepted and if it should still be running.

"We took the money, we ordered the vehicles. We took the vehicles. We've been running the service. To abandon the service is against the MassDOT contract. We do have a contract for the funds. We accepted all the money. If we rescind the contract, then we rescind the funds, and that means paying back a couple of million dollars, which we don't really have, and our portion would be at least one third of that, probably more because we run 50 percent of the service," Lambert said.

The Link413 service is a partnership between the BRTA and the Franklin Regional Transit Authority (FRTA), and Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA). The most popular route is the Pittsfield to Northampton with over 60 percent of ridership.

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