Mainers End SteepleCats' Season

iBerkshires.com Sports09:02PM / Sunday, August 03, 2025Print Story | Email Story

SANFORD, Maine -- For the second straight game, the North Adams SteepleCats jumped out to the lead in their NECBL playoff game.

But on Sunday night, the Sanford Mainers caught the 'Cats and ended North Adams' season.

Four Sanford pitchers combined to scatter six hits in a 3-1 win that sent the Mainers to the New England Collegiate Baseball League North Division championship round.

Conner Griffin went four innings, allowing just one unearned runs in the top of the first for Sanford, which won the best-of-three playoff series, 2-1.

The Mainers came back with three runs, one unearned, against North Adams starter Tristan Helmick in the sixth inning.

Helmick struck out three and scattered four hits in six innings of work.

J.T. Thompson went 2-for-4 with a double to lead North Adams' offense.

Sanford moves on to meet North Division No. 1 seed Keene in a best-of-three series to decide who goes to the league championship series.

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Q&A with State Representative Challenger Andrew Fitch

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
10:01AM / Sunday, August 23, 2026

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — On Sept. 1, voters in the First Berkshire District will decide whether they want to send a new representative to Beacon Hill in Boston.

Andrew Fitch, currently a city councilor in the district's largest municipality — and the commonwealth's smallest city — is challenging former North Adams Mayor John Barrett III, who won the First Berkshire seat in a 2017 special election, in the Democratic Party primary.

There is no Republican on the primary ballot for the First Berkshire seat so the primary will effectively be the election for the seat.

The two candidates met for their only debate on Aug. 13 at Williams College. iBerkshires.com reached out to both candidates to follow up on some of the points raised in the debate and get their thoughts on some other issues facing the district.

Below are excerpts from a conversation with challenger Andrew Fitch:

Question: From the very beginning, you talked about the campaign as a listening experience, and this week you're continuing that with the bike tour …

Andrew Fitch: Knocking on doors that have never been knocked on before. … I was riding through, I believe it was Hinsdale coming into Windsor, and they started to yell at me, 'No!' And then the guy was like, 'Wait a second. That's Andrew Fitch.' They actually knew who I was, and they were actually wanting to chat with me.

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