Pittsfield Pitchers Dominate in Little League Post-Season Opener
ADAMS, Mass. – The Pittsfield 12-year-old Little League All-Star pitchers started postseason play with a bang on Wednesday night.
Shayne Clairmont and Andrew Scalise combined on a no-hitter to lead Pittsfield to a 10-0, five-inning win over Adams-Cheshire in the opening game of the Don Gleason District 1 Tournament.
Mateo Herrera and Clairmont went 6-for-6 with a triple and a double between them at the top of the lineup for Pittsfield, which ended the game on Ryder Froio’s RBI groundout with nobody out in the bottom of the fifth.
Pittsfield scored at least two runs in four of the five innings, but the big story was the two Pittsfield pitchers, who combined to strike out seven and walk three.
Pittsfield coach Matt Mazzeo said the flow of the game dictated his approach to using the seven pitchers on his 13-player roster.
“We were going to start each one of our pitchers and only go 20 [pitches], just to see how it was going to go,” Mazzeo said. “And we ended up leaving Andrew [Scalise] in because he was pitching so well.”
The move from Clairmont to Scalise with one out in the third allowed Pittsfield to give the Adams-Cheshire hitters a different look as the designated home team switched from a right-hander to a southpaw.
“It’s a little strategic,” Mazzeo said. “If they’re hitting off our righty, we want to throw our lefty. But they weren’t hitting off our righty. We didn’t want to burn him out, so we threw in a lefty to see how that went over. It’s kind of like a test for us today.”
Pittsfield’s pitchers passed with flying colors.
And its offense wasted no time providing some support.
Herrera and Clairmont started the bottom of the first with back-to-back singles and ended up scoring to give Pittsfield a 2-0 lead.
In the third, Bradley Charow worked a one-out walk to bring the top of the lineup back to the plate, and Herrera’s triple deep to right field made it a 3-0 game. Clairmont then drove in Herrera with a single to left to push the margin to 4-0.
Scalise (2-for-2) drove in a run in a two-run fourth inning, and Pittsfield used five straight base hits in the fifth to put the game-ending run on third for Froio.
Again, Charow got things started, this time with a leadoff triple. Herrera, Claremont, Will Nicholas and Troy Maloy kept the line moving. Nicholas stole third before coming home on Froio’s groundout to end it.
Lador Lawson, Brentley Zieminski and Cooper O’Neill combined to strike out six for Adams-Cheshire, which will look for its first hit of the tournament on Saturday, when it plays Dalton-Hinsdale in the four-team round robin.
Adams-Cheshire coach Steve Albareda said there were positives to take away from the Game 1 loss.
“I thought the defense played fine, the pitchers threw strikes,” he said. “I was very happy down 2-0 and 4-0 [through three innings]. But you’re not going to beat anybody scoring zero.
“I’d say it was more our approaches [at the plate]. We’ve got to shorten swings, put the ball in play. Definitely, the off-speed pitches are something we haven’t seen. But you’ve got to catch up to the fastballs if you want to win in this league.”
Both Pittsfield and Adams-Cheshire are off on Thursday, and the tournament goes dark for Friday’s holiday.
Great Barrington and Dalton-Hinsdale will begin their roads to Williamsport on Thursday at 7:30. On Saturday, Pittsfield plays Great Barrington and Adams-Cheshire takes on Dalton-Hinsdale.
