Berkshire Force 12Us Claim Tourney Title at Home
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – A tournament that featured a number of dramatic finishes saw all the drama taken out of the 12-and-under finale in the top of the first inning.
The Berkshire Force scored six times in its first at-bat en route to a 14-0 win over the Greylock Thunder in the title game of the Battle of the Berkshires on Sunday afternoon.
Kaylana Altman went 3-for-3 with a triple, a pair of doubles and two RBIs, and Olivia Archambault struck out seven in a complete-game, five-inning shutout in the circle to claim the 12U crown.
In the tournament’s 14U division, the Dutchess Divas of New York’s Hudson Valley beat the South Shore Chaos of Bridgewater, 9-8, on a walkoff single in the bottom of the sixth inning.
The Chaos advanced in bracket play with a 6-5 win over the Berkshire Force 14Us in which the South Shore team scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth to end it.
On Saturday, in pool play, the Force 14s beat the Chaos, 8-7, on a walkoff single by Giannah Moses in the bottom of the fifth.
And in the 12Us, the Thunder rallied for two runs in the top of the sixth to hand the Youth Softball Nationals-bound Force a 6-4 loss in the tournament opener on Friday night at the Doyle Complex.
The Thunder continued to show a flare for the dramatic in the tournament semi-finals on Sunday afternoon, using a walkoff inside-the-park grand slam from Sophie Emerson in the bottom of the fifth to advance with an 8-7 win over Collar City (Troy, N.Y.).
In the end, that dramatic comeback, staged while the Force 12s enjoyed a long layoff between games, may have played a role in the Thunder’s performance when it took the field for the final less than 30 minutes later.
“That’s always a challenge, especially in the final games when you play,” Thunder coach Michael Biros said. “I think we burned a lot of energy in that last game.”
“They’ve been practicing to play in these games, and they know to play back-to-back,” Greylock coach William Greene continued the thought. “I think it was just the fact that we were down in that middle game and just the rush of excitement. That kind of brought us over the time, and coming into this game, we started flat.”
The Force was rested and ready to take advantage.
After a couple of one-out walks, Archambault (3-for-3, four RBIs) with an RbI single for the game’s first run. Stella Matthews doubled home a couple of runs, and Kayleigh DiMassimo and Layla Soules each drove in runs in a six-run rally before the Thunder had an at-bat.
Archambault carried the momentum into the bottom of the first, sitting down three batters in order to get the Force’s offense another try right away.
Josie Schilling had a two-run single in a three-run rally to put her team up, 9-0, as the Force reached base in 11 of its first 16 plate appearances.
“I wanted to see them attack more in the box,” Berkshire coach Mike Lodowski said. “When we got in the box, we wanted to attack, not just sit there and watch the ball go by.”
The Force added two more in the third to score in double digits for the third time in six games in the tournament and got RBI singles from Altman, Archambault and Matthews in consecutive at-bats in the fifth.
Meanwhile, Archambault allowed just two base runners over the first four innings before the Thunder mounted a threat in the bottom of the fifth.
Abby Dieterich led off the inning by reaching on a dropped third strike, and Liana Steiner got an infield single to put two runners on with nobody out.
Alivia Gaffey’s groundout to the right side put both runners in scoring position with one out. But Archambault got a called third strike and a ground ball to Soules at second to end the game.
“The girls came back and fought hard [after Friday’s loss to the Thunder],” Lodowski said. “We came back, we played our game.
“Libby Archambault, our pitcher, got her 300th strikeout today, which is huge in any kind of softball. And then everybody was consistently hitting. It was really good.”
The Force opens play in the USA Softball-sanctioned national tournament in South Carolina on Saturday morning against Sand Springs, Ga.
The Thunder is scheduled to take on Dalton at Russell Field in Adams on Monday.
