ADAMS, Mass. – The ACS Swat 16U team Thursday rallied for a run in the bottom of the seventh to earn a 2-1 win over Dalton in the championship game of the Berkshire County Fast Pitch Softball League.

 

Gabby Driscoll hit a ground ball to the left side with a runner on third and one out to drive in the winning run for Adams-Cheshire-Savoy, which came back from a 1-0 deficit to win a pitcher’s duel between Dalton’s Sam Kaley and Nora Moser.

 

Sloan Brothers started the winning rally by getting the third hit of the game off of Kaley.

 

“Super for her,” ACS coach Lou Moser said of Brothers. “She got the game ball tonight. She’s struggled a little bit at the plate, battled through some adversity with injuries.

 

“We had a real dedicated hitting practice last night, and she hit the ball hard last night. I knew we were going to have some good stuff out of her, and it doesn’t get more timely than that.”

 

After stealing second, Brothers went to third on a pitch in the dirt and scored when Driscoll put the ball in play.

 

The Swat’s other run also came after a leadoff hit.

 

In the bottom of the fourth, Emily Raschdorf crushed a double down the left field line to start the inning and came home on a one-out double from Aiden Champney to make it 1-1.

 

Dalton, which reached the final with a win over the Greylock Thunder in the semi-finals on Tuesday night, scored its run in the top of the third.

 

Aubrey Dowd worked a leadoff walk, and Rylee Kinzer singled to left ahead of a ground ball back to Moser in the circle.

 

Moser threw to third to erase Dowd and leave Kinzer in scoring position. Delayna Helms then drove Kinzer home with a double to left center to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

 

The way Kaley was dealing, it looked like that might be enough.

 

She ended up with seven strikeouts and three walks to go with the three hits – each of which led to a run for ACS.

 

Dalton coach Maddie Kowalczyk said she was proud of the way her team came together this summer.

 

“When I saw our first practice, it was a little iffy,” Kowalczyk said during the post-game ceremony. “But [Tuesday], we battled to get here, and tonight we battled and almost won.”

 

Moser agreed.

 

“I want to give a tip of the cap to the Dalton folks,” Moser said during the ceremony. “Very well coached. Nice group of players and nice families.”

 

Later, he said the taut county final was a good sign for both the Swat program and the state of softball in the county.

 

“For our group of girls, we’ve got kids from Drury, Hoosac and McCann on this team,” he said. “They compete against each other all through their high school season. Then they come together in the summer and become a little Swat family. And a core group of these girls, they’ve been with the program since we started in 2017 … and have won a county championship in every year except for 2020, the only year we didn’t have it.

 

“I think the health of softball in our communities was really on display here tonight. This was a high quality softball game.”

 

As good as Kaley was in the circle for Dalton, Moser was just as effective despite giving up five hits.

 

The Swat twirler pitched with runners on base all night, stranding nine over the first six innings before sitting down the Dalton hitters in order in the top of the seventh.

 

“She did a nice job,” Lou Moser said of his ace and daughter. “It’s funny. She reacts well to adversity when she gets into these situations. So we’re real proud of her. She’s been playing in the program since she was 10. Onward and upward.”

 

Photos from this game here.