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Members of the Greylock Thunder and Valley Storm 14U travel softball teams join together for a photo after Sunday's title game.

Greylock Thunder Falls in Final of Summer Storm Tournament

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires.com Sports
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – One rough game in the field does not erase the 5-0 weekend that came before.
 
And it certainly won’t wipe out the 18-4 summer that preceded it.
 
But it was a major factor in costing the Greylock Thunder 14U travel softball team the title game of its home tournament.
 
The Thunder committed six errors in a four-inning, 14-0 loss to Greenfield’s Valley Storm Hurricanes in the finale of the second annual Summer Storm tourney.
 
Valley Storm pounded out 11 hits, including five extra base hits, and it got a four-inning no-hitter from pitcher and tournament MVP Olivia Lemay.
 
But it was the defensive miscues, including three in the second inning, when the visitors scored three times to take a 4-0 lead, that set the tone.
 
“The early miscues, they just got us down,” Thunder coach Mike Ameen said. “We started out slow, and good teams take advantage of that. That was it.
 
“They’re a good team, well coached, and we just tanked it, defensively, really. Once they get down, it snowballs from there.”
 
Valley Storm rolled into the championship game on a high after beating the Dutchess (N.Y.) Debs, 8-4, in an eight-inning thriller that saw Valley score six runs in extra innings.
 
And the No. 2 seed in the tournament bracket got all the offense Lemay needed in the top of the first.
 
Mia Shaw led off with a double, moved up on Carson Farrell’s sacrifice bunt and scored on a ground ball off the bat of Sami LaFlesh.
 
Thunder pitcher Avery Lane (two strikeouts) ended the half inning with a line drive out to Gianna Witek at short.
 
But Lemay set down the Thunder in order to get her team back to the plate, and the Storm started putting up crooked numbers: three in the second, four in the third and six in the fourth.
 
Bella Bramucci went 3-for-3 with a pair of RBIs, and Lemay was 2-for-3 with a double in the win.
 
The 14 runs scored by the Storm was one more than the 13 Greylock allowed in its first five games this weekend: four pool play games and a 13-1 win over Elite Fastpitch of Greene County, N.Y., on Sunday afternoon.
 
“We’re having a great summer,” Ameen said. “We’re 18-5 now for the summer. We played in four tournaments, and we finished third twice, first and second. So I’ll take that. Throw out this game, and we’ll move on with our lives.
 
The Thunder continues its season next weekend in Dalton for the CRA Tournament.
 
“Then we’re going to Rhode Island, and we’re going to New York and then we’re done,” Ameen said. “So we’ve got three more tournaments. We’ve played four already. … I tell them all the time, we’re 18-5, so that’s 23 games. I only played 22 games in the high school season, right? And we’ve got another three tournaments to go. So we’ve already played a full high school season in three or four weeks.
 
“That’s a lot of softball, a lot of heat. But they’re great kids.”
 
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Clarksburg Students Write in Support of Rural School Aid

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

Mason Langenback calculated that Clarksburg would get almost $1 million if the $60 million was allocated equally.
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — Eighth-graders at Clarksburg School took a lesson in civic advocacy this week, researching school funding and writing letters to Beacon Hill that call for fully funding rural school aid. 
 
The students focused on the hardships for small rural schools and their importance to the community — that they struggle with limited funding and teacher shortages, but offer safe and supportive spaces for learning and are a hub for community connections.
 
"They all address the main issue, the funding for rural schools, and how there's a gap, and there's the $4 million gap this year, and then it's about the $40 million next year, and that rural schools need that equitable funding," said social studies teacher Mark Karhan.
 
A rural schools report in 2022 found smaller school districts cost from nearly 17 percent to 23 percent more to operate, and recommended "at least" $60 million be appropriated annually for rural school aid. 
 
Gov. Maura Healey has filed for more Chapter 70 school aid, but that often is little help to small rural schools with declining or static enrollment. For fiscal 2027, she's budgeted $20 million for rural schools, up from around $13 million this year but still far below the hoped for $60 million. 
 
Karhan said the class was broken into four groups and the students were provided a submission letter from Rural Schools Advocacy. The students used the first paragraph, which laid out the funding facts, and then did research and wrote their own letters. 
 
They will submit those with a school picture to the governor. 
 
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