ACS Swat Wins 12U County Title
ADAMS, Mass. – Tenley Biros struck out seven, and the ACS Swat jumped out to an 8-0 lead en route to a 16-3 win over the Greylock Thunder Tuesday in the championship game of the Berkshire County Fast Pitch Softball League 12-and-under division.
The Swat walked off with the win after Maia Ostrowski’s two-run single up the middle in the bottom of the third.
It was the culmination of a successful summer for the Adams-Cheshire-Savoy squad, which pushed itself all season against older opponents.
“Our Swat team is a totally 10U team that has come out to play in the 12U/10U hybrid league,” Swat coach Bill Greene said. “And we also played in the Dalton Tournament, moving up into the 12U division.
“I’m really proud of them. They’ve been working hard for one full year to get to this point since … we started in October last year, training, straight through the winter. We did some tournaments over in New York and down in Connecticut. And then they came back and wanted to play in the Berkshire County league and see what we could do.”
Two-run singles by Sophie Emerson and Tori Blanchard and an RBI infield single by Ginessa Zahenski keyed the first inning rally to set the tone after Biros struck out the side in the top of the first.
The Thunder got off the mat in the top of the second, batting around and scoring all three of its runs.
Josie Schilling and Sophie Childers drew walks to help load the bases, and an error and a Lilly Arnold base hit brought runners home to cut the margin to five runs.
ACS answered with four runs in the top of the second, when Liana Steiner delivered an RBI single and eventually scored a run.
After Biros sat down the side in order in the top of the third, ACS got four runs without making an out in the bottom of the frame to end the game.
The final rally started with the No. 9 hitter and relied on the bottom of the lineup with ACS hitting 14 players.
“They’ve been working really hard at hitting,” Greene said. “That’s one of the big things we work on, along with fielding. But we really work on hitting … and we want them all to be in the game. If we get them all in the batting order, they can all play in the field too. I want them all at this level to learn the field, every position, every spot out there. So we move them around out there too.”
Biros stayed in the circle on Tuesday, recording strikeouts for six of the nine outs she needed to earn the win.
“She definitely trains hard,” ACS assistant coach Mike Biros said of his daughter. “She’s been pitching about a year and a half now. She’s taken pitching lessons in Albany. She’s taken pitching lessons in Pittsfield with Mike Massery. She’s pitching with [Hoosac Valley varsity coach] Mike Ameen now. It’s been pretty good. She’s awesome. Great job.”
