Hawaii Squad Tops Pittsfield in Babe Ruth World Series Final
GLEN ALLEN, Va. — Pittsfield's quest to bring a Babe Ruth World Series title back to the Berkshires came up just a bit short on Friday.
But it will be a long time before anyone forgets what this team accomplished.
Kado, Hawaii, played error-free ball in the field and manufactured just enough offense at the plate to earn a 5-1 victory at Glen Allen Stadium.
"It's been big," Morris Fried said after being named Pittsfield's MVP in the title game. "We've been working hard all summer, and to get this far — I'm really proud of these guys. We worked as a team. It's not just one person who got us here.
"It's pretty impressive, I'd say."
Fried went 2-for-2 with an RBI at the plate and threw three innings on the mound in Friday's loss.
He said that knew the Pittsfield 13-year-old All-Stars had a chance to do something special a few weeks ago at the start of its run to the New England Regional Championship.
"When we first got to regionals and we were putting up 14, 15, 16 runs in pool play," Fried said. "It was pretty impressive — after combining states and regionals, we had over 100 runs, and I knew we had something big here."
Pittsfield never got the offense cranked up quite that much in the World Series, but it played well enough in all phases of the game to compile a 4-1 record going into Friday's finale.
And for just a moment on Friday, it looked like the old Pittsfield punch was back.
Christian Barry and Ed Ferris hit back-to-back singles to start the top of the first, and Fried followed with an RBI single up the middle to give the Shire City squad a 1-0 lead before it made an out.
But Kado pitcher Jonah Brub struck out the next two hitters, and Pittsfield got just one runner as far as third base the rest of the afternoon.
Meanwhile, Kado steadily built a small lead with single runs in the first, second and third innings.
Brub helped his cause with an RBI single in the first to tie the game. An errant throw allowed a run across in the second. And Jonah Parker drove in a run in the third.
Fried got the start on the mound for Pittsfield and scattered four hits while allowing two earned runs in three innings of work.
Cam Hillard came out to start the fourth and held the Hawaiians down for two innings before they broke through for two in the bottom of the sixth.
Cohen Adaro worked a leadoff walk, and John Miyamoto singled to set the table for the bottom of order. Tyson Uyehara and Mason Grado delivered sacrifice flies — the latter scoring on a close play at the plate after a strong throw from Ferris in center field.
Actually, Pittsfield made a strong plays in the field all afternoon.
In the second, Ferris caught a fly ball with a man on second and fired to Barry at shortstop to end the inning. In the fourth, Hillard caught a runner at first straying off the bag and threw to second baseman Ryan Stannard, who relayed to Fried at first for the tag. In the fifth, Luke Ferguson made a nifty play on a line drive at third. And in the sixth, catcher Jackson Almeida threw out his second runner of the game trying to steal second.
Pittsfield was very, very good on defense. Unfortunately for them, Kado was perfect.
"You've got to tip your cap when they go out there, a younger team like that, and they put a zero in the errors column," Pittsfield Manager Ben Stohr said. "We knew they'd have stellar defense. We were a little bit more reserved on the base paths because of that and trusted our hitters.
"In the first half, our guys came out swinging. But, even at that, another base hit a couple of times through the game when we had runners on would have been a big difference. But, you know, [Kado] earned it. Flat out, the other team earned it.
"But we're still proud of them."
Video 1: Pittsfield Babe Ruth’s Morris Fried Talks About the Support from Back Home
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