Rip City Team Wins New York Tournament

Community submission01:12PM / Monday, July 27, 2026Print Story | Email Story

TROY, N.Y. -- Ryder Froio hit .714 in five games last week to lead a 13-and-under travel team from Pittsfield's Rip City to a tournament championship.

Rip City went 3-0 in pool play, beating its opponents by a combined 40-5, and then won the Last Man Standing Tournament's semi-final and final in bracket play to claim the title.

"These guys cruised through pool play, then faced some adversity in the single-elimination games as we had to play back-to-back games ona very hot day on Sunday afternoon," coach Rick Paris said.

Lador Lawson, like Froio, had a strong tournament at the plate, going .636 with three doubles.

In the championship game, Froio went 6 and a third innings on the mound on short rest, striking out four in a 10-9 win over the [Saratoga Springs] Spa City Stallions.

Lawson got the win on the mound with two-thirds of an inning pitched.

"Ryder is a workhorse," Paris said. "I tried taking him out after four innings, and he talked me into letting him stay in since he had a very efficient fifth. HE again had a great fifth, but I could tell he was getting tired, as they all were.

"But he wanted the ball, so I left him in, but unfortunately once the tying run came up, I had to pull him. We then made an error, combined with three walks and went down for only the second time in the tournament."

Froio then ignited the game-winning rally in the bottom of the seventh, drawing a walk.

With one out, Andrew Scalise singled to right to put runners at the corners. Lawson then doubled to left field to tie the game and put runners at second and third.

Spa City intentionally walked Ryker Williams, and Sebastian Ricchi hit a walkoff single to give his team the championship.

Jeremiah Bullet had three hits, including a double, in the championship win. Mateo Herrera added two hits, including a double, and Bradley Charo and Thomas Kuzdeba each drove in three runs.

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Mad Macs Shifts Location, Focus at Allendale Shopping Center

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
12:19PM / Wednesday, November 11, 2026

Store manager Tim wright and co-owner Scott Kirchner in the company's new space.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Apple products repair company Mad Macs has moved downstairs from its previous location in the Allendale Shopping Center.

The authorized Apple repair service was established in 1998 to provide service to Apple computers and devices and has had an ever-changing history.

"Since we started, we've grown and changed and shrunk and grown again, and we've done a lot of different things," said co-owner Scott Kirchner. "We've had multiple stores. We've grown from service into retail, and now we're on the other side of that, getting out of retail and back to our roots in service."

Kirchner and co-owner Daryl Corbett were most recently located next to Walgreens in Allendale. They have now moved downstairs into Suite 101.

And while they used to sell retail and manage information technology services for businesses, that division was separated and merged with Dalton-based Renatus Solutions to form Revolution IT. They now have gone back to their roots of only repair service.

Kirchner said the COVID-era inventory shortages made retail difficult, and they went about a year without being able to obtain a computer to sell. Meanwhile, competition from Apple, online sellers, and retailers increased, while margins were low.

"Eventually it got to the point where the amount we were making doing the retail really wasn't worth it anymore," he said. "Things had changed within Apple, things sort of changed within our business model and eventually what happened is the competition got to be too much."

Since their former space was larger than needed now that they didn't have retail, they asked the plaza owners if they could move into a smaller space as they wanted to stay in the shopping center's central location. Kirchner said they are the only Apple-authorized service within 50 miles.

"A lot of our decision to downsize was to be able to preserve to be able to continue to provide that service for the county, so people didn't have to go to Holyoke or Albany, in order to get their phones fixed and devices as well," he said.

Mad Macs is mainly run by store manager Tim Wright, who now has a more secluded space to do his repairs.

The shop's hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday; it is closed on weekends and holidays, and there is an elevator to access the lower level. More information here.

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