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Ayrhill Farms Again Defends Torchia League Title

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires.com Sports
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- Three different Ayrhill Farms hitters went 4-for-4 in a 20-2 win over Chris' Girls in the championship game of the Pat Torchia Softball League.
 
Jackie LaRochelle had two doubles among her four hits and drove in six runs as Ayrhill Farms claimed its 10th straight league crown.
 
Sarah Sweet was 4-for-4 with three RBIs, and Kristen Parz went 4-for-4 with a double and an RBI in a 23-hit attack as each of the defending champions' starters had at least one hit.
 
Brit Breault and Parz each doubled in a four-run first inning, but Ayrhill Farms broke the game open with 10 runs in the bottom of the second.
 
LaRochelle belted a pair of two-run doubles in that rally to make it 14-0.
 
Ayrhill Farms then put the game out of reach with a six-run third inning highlighted by Morgan Kierstead's three-run triple.
 
Chris' Girls, who rallied from a double-digit deficit on Tuesday to escape the losers' bracket of the double-elimination tournament, could not reach Ayrhill Farms starter Jocelyn Duhamel until the top of the fourth.
 
Erica Girgenti got things started with a leadoff single but was erased when Laura Mooney reached on a fielders choice.
 
Beth Lorge singled, and Kimmie Wall hit an RBI single to left to get Chris' Girls on the board. Billie Jo Sawyer then legged out an infield single to bring home Lorge and make it 20-2.
 
In the bottom of the fourth, Chris' Girls pitcher Karen White speared her second comeback line drive of the game to help strand a runner and deliver a scoreless inning.
 
And her offense loaded the bases with two out in the top of the fifth. But Ayrhill Farms second baseman Kate Galli snagged a line drive for the final out.
 
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Q&A with State Representative Challenger Andrew Fitch

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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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