Rumbolt Law Wins Cal Ripken Minors Title
 |
| The Rumbolt Law team celebrates the final out of the game on Saturday afternoon. |
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Asher Garbatini Sunday went 2-for-2 with a double at the plate and threw two shutout innings on the mound to lead Rumbolt Law to a 6-3 win over North Adams Police Department in the championship game of the Berkshire County Cal Ripken minors division tournament.
NAPD rallied from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 before Rumbolt rallied for three runs in bottom of the fourth inning to put the game out of reach.
Andre Carasone made the three-run lead stand up, pitching out of a second-and-third jam in the fifth and leaving the bases loaded in the sixth to secure the win.
Offensively, every player on Rumbolt reached base and six of its 12 players scored a run.
Rumbolt coach John Carasone said his team grew tremendously over the last half year.
"We had a really bad fall ball season," he said. "This team could not win. And then we came back here in the spring, and we couldn't lose.
"Andre [Carasone] and Asher [Garbatini] worked their tails off in the off-season, in particular. They came back to pitch really well."
Garbatini, Carasone and Jack Smith each threw two innings from the mound, and Rumbolt played error-free ball behind them in addition to getting offensive contributions up and down the lineup.
"The whole team contributed," John Carasone said. "So much growth. And again, that fall season was a disaster, and it's pretty much the same core group."
Rumbolt went 9-0-2 in the spring and 6-0 in the month of June after Saturday's win.
The top of its lineup produced a pair of runs in the top of the first.
Theo Bengtston-Belin led off with a single off the third base bag and moved up on pitch in the dirt ahead of Garbatini's RBI double to right-center.
Garbatini then moved up on a pitch that got to the backstop and scored from third on Noah Hasenkampf's RBI groundout.
NAPD got both runs back in the third, when Ben Vivori singled, and Paxton Wood doubled in a run and scored.
Rumbolt went ahead, 3-2, on Finn Kirby's bases-loaded RBI walk in the bottom of the third.
But Vivori (2-for-3) hit an infield single with two out in the top of the fourth to drive in Anthony Bushika to tie the game.
"We were down right off the bat, and, usually, that a tough one for us to come back from," NAPD coach Patrick Wood said. "But we put two runs back up, and then we got runners on.
"And [Rumbolt's pitchers] were throwing strikes. We weren't swinging at as many strikes as they were, so it was tough to get the ball moving. And they made some good plays defensively."
Offensively, Kip Reach and Rigel Parker worked back-to-back walks to start the bottom of the fourth.
Ira Varone hit an infield single and Weiyi Hou worked a walk to bring up the top of Rumbolt's lineup with the bases loaded and one out in a 5-3 game.
North Adams Police pitcher David Atwell got the second out on a swinging third strike, but Garbatini again crushed the ball to right-center for what surely would have been his second extra-base hit of the game. However, the runner on third was Rumbolt's third run of the inning, meaning the team hit its limit and settled for a 6-3 advantage going to the fifth.
In the top of the fifth, Atwell and Kash Richardson started the frame with walks for NAPD, and both got into scoring position with nobody out.
But Carasone struck out a pair and got a fly ball to the infield to end the threat.
In the sixth, Carasone again ran into some control problems, hitting a batter and walking a pair. But he also struck out three, ending the game on a called third strike with the tying run on first.
"We had a lot of opportunities," Patrick Wood said of his team, which lost, 7-0, to Rumbolt Law in the regular season. "We just couldn't come up with big hit. But it was still a game.
"We were in it the whole time. I'm proud of the kids. It was a tough one to lose. We just couldn't get some runners across. But we fought. It was a much better outcome than the first time we played them."
