Pittsfield 10-Year-Olds Win District 1 Little League Title
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Chase Albano struck out eight, and the Pittsfield Little League 10-year-old All-Stars Sunday completed a dominant run through the Don Gleason District 1 Tournament.
Myles Morrison-Gould went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs, and Pittsfield won its fifth game via the run rule, beating Great Barrington, 19-2, in three innings to complete a two-game sweep of the best-of-three championship series.
Pittsfield moves on to the three-team, double-elimination Section 1 tournament. It will open play in the sectional on Friday evening at the site of the District 4 champion.
“I’m looking forward to heading down toward Worcester,” Pittsfield coach Jack Chavalier said. “I’m hoping my kids can keep performing at a good pace.
“We’ll see. I’m sure we’ll face a tougher fight down there, but we’ll see what we can do. I’m proud of them.”
Pittsfield needed just two trips to the plate to score its 19 runs on Sunday.
In the bottom of the first, Morrison-Gould and Albano each hit an RBI single, and Colton Smith drove in a pair of runs in a seven-run rally.
Defensively, Albano in the first struck out a pair and benefited from a throw to second by battery mate Smith to erase the game’s first base runner.
In the second, Great Barrington put the leadoff hitter on base for the second straight inning, this time on a single by Satchel Fisher (2-for-2). But Albano struck out the next three in a row to leave Fisher on third and preserve his seven-run lead.
Pittsfield’s offense then exploded for 12 runs in the bottom of the second, cashing in on 11 walks and a hit batter.
Pittsfield also got RBI singles from Shaun Boehm, Mason Fox and Morrison-Gould, and Albano helped his cause in the rally with a sac fly.
Great Barrington went to the plate in the top of the third needing five runs to extend the game.
It refused to go down without a fight.
Mason Blackwell and Owen Slater each drew a walk to start the inning.
Then, with one out, Weston Tremont singled to right to drive in Blackwell with Great Barrington’s first run.
Albano got the next hitter swinging at a third strike, but Cooper Paul worked a walk with two out to load the bases. Fisher delivered his second hit of the game to drive in Slater and put run No. 5 on first base.
But Albano finished the game with a strikeout to touch off the celebration for Pittsfield.
“I hated to pull him,” Chevalier said of the decision to let Albano finish what he started. “He was in control. And I just figured: He’s had some control issues, and that’s what we talked about as a staff and I started him today. He was in there with a short leash.
“And he pitched two very good innings. And he did alright getting out of that [third] to settle himself down. So we’ll see what happens. Now we know we’ve got a lefty we can throw.”
