Devoti Leads Liberty to Win in Dalton Tourney Opener
DALTON, Mass. -- Julia Devoti struck out six and scattered three hits Saturday to lead the Berkshire Liberty travel softball team to a 7-0 win over the Greylock Thunder Saturday in the first game of the 16-and-under division at the Dalton CRA Invitational Softball Tournament.
The Liberty got all the offense it needed in the bottom of the second, when Emily Steurernagle drew a leadoff walk, went to third on a dropped third strike and scored on another dropped third strike to make it 1-0.
That set a tone for the game that saw the Liberty take advantage of pitches to the backstop and errors to score all of its runs.
Steuernagle sscored twice in the win. Katie Gappa and Emily Gilmore each singled and scored a run.
Devoti stranded seven runners in the game shortened to six innings by the tournament's time rule.
In the first, the Thunder had two runners on base when Devoti served up a ground ball to Tori Gilmore at shortstop.
In the sixth, Greylock again had two runners on with two out, but Devoti ended the threat with a ground ball back to the circle.
Mikayla Ranzoni, Bella Viola and Chloe Vanuni each had a single for the Thunder.
Rylynn Witek struck out nine for the Thunder.
In its second game on Saturday, the Liberty beat the Halfmoon (N.Y.) Lightning, also by a score of 13-5.
That gave the Liberty a 2-0 record, tying it with the Guilderland (N.Y.) Bulldogs and Lady Outlaws out of Albany, N.Y., in the six-team field. Based on run-differential, the Liberty are seeded third headed into Sunday's knockout rounds. That sets up a rematch against Halfmoon at 8 a.m. with the winner to face Guilderland in the semi-finals at 11:30.
The Greylock Thunder, meanwhile, lost to Guilderland, 8-0, and was seeded fourth. The Thunder will face Adams-Cheshire-Savoy at 8 a.m. for the right to play the top seeded Outlaws at 11:30.
One CRA Tourney champion was decided on Saturday.
In the 12-and-under Division, the ACS Swat swept the first two games of a best-of-three series against the Greylock Thunder, winning by scores of 12-9 and 16-4 to take the title.
In the 10U division, the Greylock Thunder earned a bye into Sunday afternoon's championship game, where it will face the winner of ACS and Dalton, who meet at 1:15 p.m.
In the 14U division, a four-team semi-final round gets underway at 9:45 a.m. at Pine Grove Park.
The top-seeded Berkshire Force 14U squad, which went 2-0 in pool play, will face the Bolt out of South County in one semi-final. In the other, host Dalton (1-1) will take on ACS (1-1). The winners will meet at 1:15 p.m.
