Thunder Finishes Season Unbeaten in Berkshire Adult Baseball League
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – John Goodnow hit a key two-run single late, and the Berkshire Thunder Sunday overcame a three-run deficit en route to a win over Tunnel City Freight as the Thunder finished the Berkshire Adult Baseball League 33-and-over division with a 14-0 record.
Jesus Lay went 4-for-5 with an RBI and scored three times for the Thunder, which pulled away late to take 15-4 win at the Alcombright Athletic Complex.
Nine of those Berkshire runs came in the top of the seventh inning.
The Thunder took the lead one inning earlier with a two-run rally.
Lay, who ended the fifth at shortstop by starting a 6-3 double play, led off the top of the sixth with a single to left field.
Kevin Robinson and Jake Barbarotta followed with a single and a walk, respectively to load the bases.
Tunnel City starter Jeremy Broadwell got the next hitter on a groundball back to the mound, erasing Lay but keeping the bases loaded.
Then, with two out, Goodnow dropped a single into right field to score Robinson and Barbarotta and give Berkshire a 6-4 lead.
The Thunder struck first in the top of the first when Lay, who entered the game hitting .645 this summer, got his 21st hit with one out, and eventually scored on an error to make it 1-0.
Tunnel City immediately answered with three runs in the bottom of the frame.
Kevin Lamb got things started with a one-out single. Kevin Alicea hit an RBI double, and Nolan Brassard hit an RBI triple down the first-base line to make it 3-1, Tunnel City.
Thunder starter Seamus Morrison settled down after that, allowing just one more run in four innings before giving the ball to Cory Hillard for three innings of scoreless relief.
Broadwell sat down the league-leading Thunder in order in the second and third innings, and Tunnel City stretched its lead to 4-1 in the third when D.J. Clark doubled in a run.
The Thunder scored three runs on three hits in the fourth to tie the game.
Joe Bateman started things with a walk, and Lay’s second hit of the game moved him to third. A sacrifice fly by Robinson made it 4-2 before Barbarotta doubled to right center to set up second and third with one out.
Corey Lehmuth singled to drive in Lay, and Dan Corbett’s sac fly plated Barbarotta to tie the game, 4-4.
After the go-ahead rally for the Thunder in the top of the sixth, it pounded out six hits and took advantage of an error and a couple of free passes to score nine off Broadwell and Ryan Shea in the seventh.
Hillard earned the win on the bump for Berkshire, throwing one-two-three innings in the fifth and sixth and stranding a pair after Broadwell’s leadoff double in the bottom of the seventh.
Both Berkshire (14-0) and second-place Tunnel City (11-3) move on to next week’s BABL 33-and-over league semi-finals.
