DALTON, Mass. – Nyla Cooper struck out eight in three innings in the circle Sunday evening to lead the Greylock Thunder 10-and-under travel softball team to a 16-0 win over ACS Swat in the title game of the CRA Invitational.

 

Cooper also applied the tag for the putout of the only non-strikeout her team needed to secure the three-inning win.

 

She allowed no hits, walked just three and struck out the side in order in the top of the third to end the game.

 

“We have a rotation of four pitchers,” Thunder coach Nick Lentine said. “She is the No. 1, for sure. And then Avery Quick is our No. 2. She pitched the game going into the championship for this weekend.”

 

The Thunder went 2-0 in pool play on Friday and Saturday to take the top seed going into bracket play.

 

After knocking off the Vermont Bombers behind Quick, the Thunder moved on to the final against ACS, which also had to get by the Bombers in the final of the tournament’s losers bracket – after falling to the Vermonters on Saturday to start the playoffs.

 

In the rematch to earn the right to face the Thunder, the Swat got a pair of hits apiece from Lania DiMarsico and Kerrington Lee and Aubriella Skorupski in a 17-5 win that lasted just three innings as well.

 

But the Swat was not able to carry that momentum into the final, not with Cooper in the circle.

 

She retired the side on strikeouts in the first while pitching around a pair of walks. In the second, McKinley Milligan walked and stole a pair of bases, but when she tried to come home on a ball to the backstop, Thunder catcher Reagan Moynihan hustled back to retrieve the ball and fired to Cooper, who put the tag on for the inning’s second out.

 

Offensively, Berkshire scored six – mostly due to walks and errors – in the bottom of the second. The big blow in the rally was a two-run single by Claire Alvarez.

 

In the second, Quick got things started with a one-out double, sparking what ended up being a 10-run rally.

 

Moynihan had a pair of hits in the inning to go 2-for-3 in the game. Izzy Harrington, Maddy Hamilton and Ryleigh Leninte also hit safely.

 

For ACS, Lee and Skorupski split time in the circle.

 

The win marked the second tournament title in as many weeks for the Greylock Thunder, which won a championship in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., last week. Next weekend, it heads east to compete in its third and final tournament of the summer in Greenfield.

 

Lentine said he has seen improvement from his team as the season has gone on.

 

“We practice a couple of days a week, and the girls seem to give it their all every time they’re out in the field,” he said. “And I feel like we keep pushing them and pushing them and pushing them.

 

“And we’re a fairly young team. We only have two girls who age off. So we’ll have 10 girls coming back [next summer].”