Virginia Team No-Hits Pittsfield in Babe Ruth World Series
GLEN ALLEN, Va. — Little worked offensively for the Pittsfield Babe Ruth 13-year-old All-Stars on Monday.
On Tuesday, they get to go back to work.
Dylan Apfel and Lane Herring combined on a no-hitter to lead Winchester, Va., to a 5-3 win over Pittsfield in pool play at Glen Allen Stadium.
It was an uncharacteristic result at the end of a unusual day that saw Pittsfield's 10 a.m. scheduled start get pushed back to nearly 5 p.m. and saw the team that registered a no-hitter allow its opponent to erase most of a three-run lead late in the game.
Pittsfield Manager Ben Stohr said the schedule, which saw his team take batting practice in the rain then return to the hotel to wait for a call back to the field, was challenging but not the deciding factor.
"The other team's got to do it too," he said. "Ideally, they're itching to go this morning. But at the same time, [Winchester] has got to do the same thing. They came out to play. And they're in the same boat."
A bigger factor was the pitching of Apfel, who struck out four in six innings of work and left with the no-hitter intact before turning the ball over to Herring for a 1-2-3 seventh.
"Just getting ahead in the count," Apfel said of his key to the day. "When I fell behind in the count, I had to know I had to throw strikes and get us the win."
Apfel walked four, but all Pittsfield's runs were unearned thanks to a passed ball in the first and a pair of errors in the sixth.
"He was really effective," Stohr said. "He was living around the zone. He definitely was trying to go outside … hitting the corners, getting the calls. He was mixing in that curve ball well.
"I just think he had little bit of a deceiving arm slot where they kids weren't seeing the spin as well."
Winchester jumped on top with two runs in the top of the first inning.
Cade Delawder and Nicholas Usa hit back-to-back singles and each ended up scoring thanks to some Pittsfield miscues — a passed ball and an error — to make it 2-0.
After that, Pittsfield starter Morrie Fried settled down, striking out 10 and allowing no earned runs in 5-two-thirds innings of work.
"To be honest with you, we know he has really excellent stuff, he's a big boy, he worked really hard in this off-season with some trainers back in Pittsfield," Stohr said. "The difference between him pitching last year and this year has been enormous. He had a little wrist injury in house league early on that set him back.
"We went into this game thinking, 'Try to give us about 65 effective pitches.' And he was just cruising. He didn't look like he was losing any velocity. He was staying down on the ball. He really was excellent for us. They got those two hits early in the first inning, those two runs, and that kind of was the difference, unfortunately."
Pittsfield got one back in the first when Christian Barry worked a leadoff walk, stole second, moved up on a passed ball and scored in Fried's RBI groundout.
It stayed 2-1 until the top of the sixth, when another Pittsfield error opened the door to a two-run inning for Winchester and ended Fried's day after 97 pitches.
Barry took the ball and finished the game, striking out a pair.
Pittsfield's offense generated two runs in the sixth when Robby Bazinet and Ryan Stannard reached on walks and both ended up coming home on Eddie Ferris' RBI groundout that led to an error by Winchester's middle infield.
In the top of the seventh, Apfel helped his cause with an RBI single to push the lead back to two runs, and Herring retired the side in order in the seventh for the save.
For a game where every run scored was unearned, there were some solid defensive plays.
Pittsfield turned a nice double play in the fourth and got an outfield assist from center fielder Eddie Ferris to catcher Jackson Almeida in the fifth.
Winchester got a pair of line-drive catches by its infield in the seventh, including a game-ender by Brady Smith at short to deny Connor Paronto what looked sure to be Pittsfield's first hit.
Stohr said his team will be ready for its pool play finale on Tuesday at 2 p.m. against the Pacific Northwest Champions.
"We know that no hits isn't the type of team we are," he said. "It just wasn't our day. A timely base hit here or there could have been a big difference when we had baserunners on.
"But we'll adjust.[Apfel] had good stuff. We're ready to reset for tomorrow."
iBerkshires.com’s coverage of the Babe Ruth World Series is sponsored by General Dynamics.
