Smith Single Gives Pittsfield Little Leaguers Walkoff Win
HOLDEN, Mass. – Colton Smith singled on a hard comebacker to the mound in the bottom of the seventh Thursday to give the Pittsfield Little League 12-year-old All-Stars a 3-2 win over Holden in the Section 1 Tournament.
The win propels Pittsfield to the final round of the four-team double-elimination tournament. It will be home on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Deming Park against the winner of Friday’s game between Holden and Westfield, a 16-0 winner over Quabbin on Thursday night in the losers’ bracket.
Pittsfield Thursday got seven strong innings on the mound from Carmelo Coco and Hector Reyes-Colon, who also hammered a solo home run in the top of the fourth to give his team a 2-1 lead at the time.
But Holden, which was down to its last strike in the top of the sixth, got an RBI single from Lukas Ojerholm to stay alive.
After Holden reliever Declan Wardwell stranded a runner at first in the bottom of the sixth, the teams went to extra innings, where Little League employs the “ghost runner,” starting each half inning with a runner on second base.
Smith came up huge behind the plate for Pittsfield in the top of the seventh, throwing out the ghost runner attempting to steal third for the first out of the inning.
Reyes-Colon then got a groundball to the mound for out No. 2 and a slow roller up the first base line to Brody Hamilton, who tagged out the batter to get Pittsfield back in the dugout.
Myles Morrison-Gould started the bottom of the seventh on second base, and Mason Fox dropped down a sacrifice bunt to move him to third.
Holden then intentionally walked Reyes-Colon to bring Smith to the plate. With a 2-1 count, he pounded the ball up the middle. Wardwell was able to knock it down, but by the time he scrambled back toward second to grab the ball and make a wild throw home, Morrison-Gould already had crossed home plate with the winning run.
“The big key was Mason getting the bunt down, advancing Myles to third,” Pittsfield coach Joe Skutnik said. “And then it didn’t really matter whether they walked Hector or not, but it was putting pressure on their defense. They had to make a play, and they didn’t.
“Colton’s probably our best off-speed hitter. So I really thought that he was going to hit the ball.”
Smith’s hit was the sixth of the game for Pittsfield.
The first two came in the third inning, when the designated home team broke a scoreless tie.
Maizen Errichetto led off with a single up the middle and moved up on a wild pitch. Then, with one out, Chase Albano drove a double into the right-center gap to send Errichetto home and give Pittsfield a 1-0 lead.
Holden got that run back right away in the top of the fourth.
In the bottom of the frame, Reyes-Colon drove the ball over the center field fence to get a one-run lead back.
It looked like that might be enough the way Coco (two strikeouts, no walks, 3-plus innings) and Reyes-Colon (seven strikeouts, two walks, 4 innings pitched) were dealing.
“Carmelo threw great,” Skutnik said. “Hector has had his problems with left-handers, but today he kind of worked through it. He came through for us.”
Holden starter Sam Davidson ended up with a no-decision after striking out seven and walking one while allowing two runs in five innings of work. He also had two of his team’s nine hits.
Coco and Reyes-Colon combined to strand 10 runners in seven innings.
And Pittsfield’s reward is that it gets to take a practice day Friday while its next opponent plays to stay in the tournament.
Skutnik’s team also gets to make its first appearance of the all-star season at Deming Park on Saturday afternoon.
“These kids have traveled since they were 11,” Skutnik said. “They traveled every single game and the first two games [in the sectional]. It’s good to go home and try and put it away.”
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