Great Barrington 10YOs Edge Adams, Earn Rematch with Pittsfield
The victory clinched a spot for Great Barrington (2-1) in the championship round of the tournament.
With a record of 2-1, GB will be the second seed in the best-of-three district final that gets under way on Saturday at Deming Park against top-seeded Pittsfield (3-0), a 15-0 winner over Dalton-Hinsdale (1-2) on Wednesday night.
Blackwell’s third hit of the night for Great Barrington capped a two-out rally to overcome a 13-12 deficit after Adams-Cheshire (0-3) took the lead in a back-and-forth game with a run in the top of the sixth.
“We were able to all that with two outs in the sixth inning,” Great Barrington coach Chip Paul said. “There’s absolute heart to these kids.
“Tonight, Mason hit the ball so hard all over the place.”
Both teams hit the ball well at Clapp Park on the final night of pool play in the four-team county tournament.
Adams-Cheshire and Great Barrington combined for 25 hits between them.
Maddox Milesi went 2-for-3 with a double, a triple and five RBIs for AC. Levi Labonte and Jack Pladdys each went 2-for-3 with a double.
Blackwell’s 3-for-4 night led Great Barrington, which also got a 3-for-4 night with a double from Satchel Fisher.
Adams jumped out to a 3-0 lead and got the night’s only 1-2-3 inning from Labonte (4 innings, five strikeouts) to take that lead into the second inning.
Great Barrington got on the board in the bottom of the second with a five-run rally highlighted by RBI triples from Blackwell and Weston Tremont to take a 5-3 lead.
In the top of the fourth, AC scored four runs, two coming home on a double by Pladdys, to take a 7-5 lead.
But Great Barrington struck right back with two in the bottom of the frame to tie it.
Each team scored five times in the fifth.
First, a two-run triple by Milesi and an RBI double from Labonte helped Adams grab a 12-7 lead.
Then, Great Barrington sent all 10 of its players to the plate, scoring five more runs with the big blow a two-out, two-run double by Tremont to tie the game, 12-12.
In the top of the sixth, Lukas Benson worked a two-out walk for Adams-Cheshire and used his speed to come around and score on a base hit up the middle from Avry Decker that put his team in position to get its first win of the tournament with a 13-12 lead.
Benson, who came on in relief of Labonte in the fifth, then retired the first two batters he faced in the bottom of the sixth.
But Great Barrington’s Lukas Saupe bunted his way aboard and Ivey Weller worked a walk to put runners at first and second with two out.
Zeke McLaughlin then got the night’s most improbable hit, a pop up just in front of home plate that the AC catcher could not corral. McLaughlin raced to first to load the bases, extend the inning and put the winning run in scoring position for Blackwell.
“That’s what’s important,” Paul said of McLaughlin’s hit. “You have to play every pitch, play every hit until the moment it is an out.”
Fisher, McLaughlin and Weller split time on the mound for Great Barrington, combining to strike out 11.
On Saturday, Great Barrington gets its second shot of the week to beat Pittsfield, an 11-1 winner when the teams met in the round robin on Tuesday.
“I’m surprised a little bit by the pitching ability we have and how deep we can go into pitching,” Paul said. “Then we’ve got guys hanging around the nine-, 10-spot in the order, and they’re driving in four or five runs. That’s absolutely huge.
“We didn’t set our sights too, too high. We just gave ourselves a couple of small goals, and that’s to try to win every inning and go out there and do the best we can. We’re not letting ourselves down with that.”
