North Adams Police Edges Lanesborough for League Crown
Bullett recorded six strikeouts in two innings of work to lead NAPD past the tournament's top seed, Lanesborough Local 473, at Laston Park.
Christian Chelsey, Nolan Bullett and Cam Bullett combined on the win on the mound for North Adams, striking out 14 hitters in all.
"Our pitching has been great all year," NAPD coach Chris Bullett said. "We've pitched six different kids. The three who pitched tonight are the ones who ended up the best for us over the year.
"But they've all been huge and clutch at different points in time. This is our fifth or sixth one-run game, so we've been through it before, and they know how to close everything out once they get out there."
NAPD got a key RBI double from Donovan Schulz in a three-run fourth inning to take a 5-3 lead.
Lanesborough got an RBI double from Declan Wilson, who went 3-for-3 at the plate and struck out three on the mound.
Noah Higgins and Rowan Higgins also pithced for Lanesborough. The three combined for 13 strikeouts in the back-and-forth game.
North Adams Police struck first in the top of the first when Chelsey singled to right to drive in Mason Wood to make it 1-0.
Lanesborough answered in the bottom of the inning with Wilson's first hit of the game, an RBI single up the middle to plate Noah Higgins.
NAPD retook the lead without the benefit of a hit in the top of the second, and it stayed 2-1 until the third, when Lanesborough scored twice.
Rowan Higgins drew a leadoff walk, and Noah Higgins and Wilson singled in a rally for the home team to make it 3-2 midway through the game.
Then came North Adams PD's big inning.
Lucas Chalmers and Aiden Bourdreau got things started with back-to-back walks to start the inning.
Then Wood hit an infield single to score Chalmers, Johnah Schrock hit an RBI groundout back to the mound, and Schulz crushed a double to left to make it 5-3.
"Donovan's been hitting great all year," Chris Bullett said. "This is is first year playing baseball. So he's learned right from the get-go. He's had a lot of big hits for us this year, so it's fitting that he gets one.
"Pretty much what happened tonight is a lot of what happened during the season. All the guys who got hits are the ones that were helping us out a lot during the season, and the pitching has carried us all season long."
Rowan Higgins and Noah Higgins styimied North Adams PD over the last two innings, combining to strike out five and allow just one base-runner, a leadoff walk that Noah pitched around in the top of the sixth.
Meanwhile. Lanesborough's offense got a run back in the fifth. Noah Higgins reached when he was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on Wilson's third RBI single of the night to make it 5-4.
With that slim margin going to the bottom of the sixth, the NAPD coaching staff had a simple message for its players under the temporary lights at Laston Park.
"Focus," Chris Bullett said. "It's hard. For 8- to 10-year-olds, the focus is hard. So we had three outs left. I just want to make sure everybody was ready to play defense and cheer each other on."
Cam Bullett walked the first two hitters before getting a called third strike. He then walked another hitter to load the bases, and, with no margin for error, got the last two outs on called third strikes to end the game.
The win gave North Adams teams a pair of championships, in the 12-year-old and 10-year-old division, in a league that includes teams from Lanesborough, Pownal and Williamstown.
