Berkshire Force 12Us Make Final Day of New England Regional
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Olivia Archambault threw three innings of no-hit ball Saturday to lead the Berkshire Force 12Us to a 13-3 win in a must-win game at the Babe Ruth Softball New England Regional.
The victory, Berkshire’s second of the day, keeps the Force alive to take another crack at the Stamford, Conn., Stars on Sunday at 10 a.m. at the Doyle Complex on Benedict Road.
Archambault, Lilly Pudelko and Tori Blanchard had two hits apiece in Saturday’s elimination game against Windham, N.H., which the Force ended in the bottom of the fourth inning via the run rule.
“We had to play a third game for the day,” Force coach Mike Lodowski said. “They came back and they put it on these guys to get out of here, get some rest and come back tomorrow and fight hard.
“That’s a tough team we’re playing tomorrow. We’ve got to get through it. But all our players have played great.”
The Force began bracket play on Saturday morning with a 12-4 win over the Windham Wildcats.
Kaylana Altman went 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBIs, and Archambault tripled twice and drove in two runs in the victory.
Archambault also picked up the win in the circle, throwing six innings and striking out nine.
That set up a rematch against Stamford, which beat Berkshire in Friday morning’s tournament opener.
In the rematch, the Force scored three runs in the top of the fourth inning to take a 3-2 lead over the top-seeded Stars.
Altman got the rally started with a bunt single, and she went to third on Addy Farkas’ single to center field. Archambault’s line drive out to right field allowed Altman to tag up and put Berkshire on the board.
Cassidy Flynn then singled to put runners at the corners. She moved up on a passed ball before Gianna Moses delivered a double to center to drive in two runs and make it 3-2, Force.
Berkshire tacked on two runs in the top of the sixth on RBIs from Archambault and Flynn to make it 5-2.
But down to its last at-bat, Stamford rallied with four runs in the bottom of the inning, ending the game with Maddie McGrath’s two-run triple to right field.
“We had ‘em,” Lodowski said. “Three runs in the last inning. They tattooed the ball on us. [Flynn] was pitching well. And they got a hold of two of them, and ended up beating us by one.
“It was tough.”
Flynn struck out six and allowed five earned runs in the loss.
That meant the Force had to beat the Windham Wildcats for the third time in three days to stay alive for a chance to go to Alabama and the Babe Ruth World Series.
The home team wasted little time taking control.
After Archambault pitched around a one-out error to retire the side on three groundball outs in the top of the first, the Force scored eight times in the bottom of the inning.
Archambault and Flynn each drove in a run with singles. Five Berkshire runs came in on pitches that got to the backstop as a steady rain impacted Windham’s battery.
Archambault retired six of the next seven hitters she faced to get through three innings before hitting her inning limit for the day. Daisy Caron went to the circle to finish the game, striking out one.
Meanwhile, Berkshire’s offense tacked on two in the second to push its lead to 10-0. Pudelko had an RBI single in the rally.
Then, up 10-3 going to the bottom of the sixth, the Force got consecutive singles from Pudelko, Blanchard and Caron to push the margin to nine. Caron then scored the game’s last run on a wild pitch.
On Sunday morning, the Force will again face a Stamford squad that is 20-4 since the start of May in the final round of the double-elimination tourney. If Berkshire wins the first game, it will force a winner-take-all finale for the regional crown.
