Pittsfield 10-Year-Old Little Leaguers Stay Alive in Sectional
WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield’s Cross Street Park has been a house of horrors for the Pittsfield Little League 10-year-old program in recent years.
Maybe that is why on Saturday Pittsfield got out of there as fast as it could.
P.J. Garner went the distance on the mound, and battery mate Henry Chevalier went 2-for-2 with a double and three RBIs as Pittsfield beat Westfield, 13-2, in four innings to advance to the championship round of the Section 1 Tournament.
Pittsfield survived the losers’ bracket of the double elimination tourney and earned the right to face Holden (2-0) on Sunday afternoon. A win for Pittsfield on Sunday will force a winner-take-all finale on Monday evening at Deming Park.
Last year, Westfield wrestled the sectional title from Pittsfield with a seventh-inning walkoff win in Westfield. This week, Westfield opened pool play with a 4-3 walkoff win on its home field.
“This has been a long time coming down here and not winning,” Pittsfield coach Matt Stracuzzi said. “The way we lost last year and then how we lost Thursday night – to come in and then 10-run them? Oh my God.
“These kids, they accepted this challenge when we lost that first game. I told them they could do it, and boy did they show it today.”
Pittsfield made a statement early, plating its first four batters and going up 7-0 in the top of the first.
Knoxx Daniels started the inning with a double to right-center, and Chevalier doubled to drive in a pair to make it 4-0. Later, Braiden Coon reached on a bunt single and scored on a delayed double steal with Thomas Crawford, after Crawford’s RBI single.
Crawford ended up scoring on Grayson Christopher’s RBI double, and Thomas St. John laid down a sacrifice bunt to bring home Levi Doyle to make it 7-0.
Westfield got two of those runs back in the bottom of the first.
Greyson Krause and Evan Karetka at the top of the lineup each hit his way on, and with first and third and one out, Karetka and Jameson Knights executed the game’s second delayed double steal to make it 7-2.
Chevalier heard it from the Pittsfield bench after throwing down on the first-and-third situation, but he immediately bounced back.
After another single put runners at the corners again, a Westfield hitter popped up in foul territory on the third base side. Chevalier made a diving catch and recovered to throw a strike to first base for the 2-3 double play that ended the inning.
Westfield got just one runner into scoring position the rest of the way.
“Great play,” Stracuzzi of Chevalier’s dive and pivot for the DP. And that’s what we talk about: When you make a mistake, let’s go on to the next one and not make it, and let’s make up for it. Or, if someone makes a mistake, someone else pick him up, make a play.
“That’s what we’re about with this team. And I’m proud of how they do that.”
Pittsfield tacked on a couple of runs in the second, taking advantage of five walks in the inning.
After a scoreless third, Pittsfield scored four in the fourth to put the run rule on the table.
Daniels started with a walk, and Garner reached on an error. Then Luca Bassi, Chevalier and Caleb Tierney hit three straight RBI singles, and Crawford later sacrificed in a run to put his team up by 11.
After Westfield’s two-run first inning, Garner allowed just two more hits – both to leadoff batters – to maintain the lead.
“When he started out, he wasn’t crisp,” Stracuzzi said. “And then he started to find his groof. And like I told him, ‘P.J., you’re a good pitcher. Believe in yourself, and just throw strikes. We’ll play defense behind you. And he did exactly that.
“He told me going out there the last inning, ‘Coach, I got it.’ You’ve got to love that from a 10-year-old.”
Garner proceeded to retire the side in order to end the game: spearing a line drive back to the mound and getting two ground balls to Bassi at third and Daniels at short.
Now, Pittsfield has a quick turnaround at Holden, which won its first two games in the sectional by a combined 17-1.
Stracuzzi and his squad have not seen Holden yet, but he knows someone who has.
“I’ll talk to Duke [Dalton-Hinsdale coach Brian Duquette] and get a little scouting report from him,” Stracuzzi said. “I’m sure he can give me a good one.
“We’re not done yet. I mean, we’ve had battles against Holden [in years past] too, so it’s going to be a battle. But we’ll be ready for that challenge.”
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