La Festa Baseball Exchange Going Strong After 33 Years
On Saturday, the latter was on full display before North Adams hosted the North End Dodgers at Joe Wolfe Field.
North Adams head coach John Marlowe made an early mound visit to throw out the ceremonial first pitch to his son, North Adams second baseman Jack Marlowe.
Later, after the Bostonians earned a 12-6 win in the first of two games at the Joe this weekend, the elder Marlowe, who played in the La Festa in 1997, talked about the moment and what the event means.
"It was pretty cool," said Marlowe, now a firefighter in the city. "It was great to be a part of this again and be a part of it with my son."
The pregame ceremonies are always special at the mid-summer classic, and Saturday night was no different, as event founders George Canales of North Adams and John Romano of the North End shared the microphone and shared a hug before the 33rd edition of the exchange, which will see the North Adams squad head to Boston the weekend of Aug. 10 and 11.
Canales had his own intergenerational moment leading up to the opener, as he told the crowd about a recent visit from his grandson Brayden and a few of his friends -- La Festa alumni all.
"These three gentlemen that you see in front of me, who played in this Exchange, came to my house and said, 'Don't you touch the baseball field. We're going to clean it, rake it, do everything and line it,' " George Canales recounted.
"That's what it's all about."
After the introductions, a presentation of the nation's colors by an honor guard from North Adams American Legion Post 125 and a rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner by Meghan Gleason, the Marlowe-to-Marlowe first pitch cleared the way for the competitors.
And the home team gave their fans something to cheer about right out of the gate with two runs in the bottom of the first inning.
JJ Prenguber doubled in a run and scored on Andrew Meany's RBI single.
The North End squad erased the deficit and pulled ahead with five-run third that saw Owen Flanigan provide an RBI single.
But North Adams fought back with two in the bottom of the frame to pull within a run.
On the hill for the hosts, Jayden Demotropolis, who took over for Noah Arnold in the third, pitched out of jams in the fourth and fifth to keep it a one-run game.
But the Dodgers broke through for six runs in the top of the sixth.
Aiden Previte singled to right to drive in a run, and the visitors capitalized on a couple of North Adams errors to take an 11-4 lead.
In the bototm of the sixth, Hayden Barrett bunted his way on base, stole second and then stole third and scored when the throw went into left field.
But North End's Ferinand Corangelo struck out the next three. Corangelo took over on the mound for Flanigan to start the fourth and struck out six in four innings of work to earn the win.
The teams traded single runs in the seventh.
North Adams will get another crack at the Dodgers on Sunday morning. But, win or lose, the cultural exchange is at least as important as wins and losses -- which were divided right down the middle over the course of the series going into Saturday night.
"It was a very competitive game, just like this was, and it was a great, great time going down to Boston," John Marlowe said of his La Festa experience as a player. "I still remember like it was yesterday.
"They treated us like one of their own down there. It's just a great event. I'm happy to be part of it again."
