Force 16U Defends Home Field with Tourney Title
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| Ava McMahon struck out six and allowed three earned runs in a complete-game win. |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – The Berkshire Force 16U travel softball team Sunday rallied for three runs in the top of the seventh inning to pull away for an 8-4 win in the championship game of their Battle of the Berkshires tournament at the Doyle Complex.
Ava McMahon struck out six and gave up just one run after the first inning as the Force completed a 3-0 run through the playoffs after going 1-2 in pool play.
Mollie Crawford, Amelia Polidoro and McMahon each drove in a run in the late rally that finally gave McMahon a little bit of breathing room.
The Force jumped on top early with three runs in the top of the first, but the Nor’Easters out of New Hampshire’s Lakes Region responded right away, tying the game.
In the second, Amaya Alger (3-for-3) singled, moved up on Mackenzie Biros’ sacrifice bunt and scored on a combination stolen base/errant throw to give the Force a 4-3 lead it never relinquished.
But Berkshire missed chances to add to that lead in the third, fourth and fifth, leaving runners in scoring positions in each inning.
Meanwhile, McMahon was brilliant in the circle after a rough first inning, striking out six, walking just one and allowing three earned runs in a complete-game effort.
“She did settle down,” Force coach Brian MacDonald said. “We’re down one of our pitchers. Our other pitcher was hit in the head by [the Nor’Easters] with a line drive. So Ava was our go-to today, and she handled the pressure really well. She came back after that three runs and just did her job on the mound.”
She also got some big assists in the field.
In the fifth inning, with the Force up, 4-3, Polidoro in right field made a diving catch coming in on a line drive to start the inning, and catcher Lexi Spratling threw to shortstop Lillian MacDonald to catch a runner attempting to steal second. Polidoro later made another diving catch in right in the bottom of the seventh.
The Force 16U offense gave McMahon a little bit of a cushion in the top of the sixth.
Madilyn Demary dropped a two-out double into left field, and Alger drove her home with a double down the right field line to make it 5-3.
But the Granite Staters got that run back in the bottom of the frame, sending the teams to the seventh with the Force up by just one.
Markiara Jackson started the inning by working a walk, and an error put runners at first and second for Crawford, who singled to left to score Jackson. The throw home left MacDonald at third and Crawford at second with nobody out.
Polidoro’s RBI groundout drove in MacDonald, and McMahon’s single to center gave her team an 8-4 lead.
“We need to not take our foot off the gas, and that’s what the girls need to understand,” Brian MacDonald said. “We got to hit, we got to hit, we got to hit. We just need to keep up. We can’t let up. We can’t give in. Because one run is not enough padding.
“When we put three up there in the last inning, that felt a little safe.
McMahon refused to give the Nor’Easters life, retiring the side in order to secure the win.
The Force, which already has qualified for a national championship tournament this summer and is looking for corporate sponsors for its trip to Ocean City, Md., benefited from the level of play it saw throughout the weekend, MacDonald said.
“I think everybody was kind of close to each other,” he said. “We had some dynamite teams. We had a No. 1 seed get shut down by the CC Reds, and we came in and shut them down (5-4). It was amazing. We beat [the Nor’easters] yesterday, and they beat two teams that beat us yesterday. I think the competition was 100 percent right on.”
Greylock Thunder 16U
The Thunder, which beat the Force in Friday night’s tournament opener, was eliminated on Saturday when the Classie Lassies out of Wynantskill, N.Y., scored an unanswered run in the top of the fifth to earn a 6-5 win in an elimination game.
Kyleigh Cooper doubled and drove in two runs in the loss. Avery Lane struck out six and allowed three earned runs in a complete-game effort in the circle.
12U DIVISION
The Berkshire Force 12U rallied for five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning but fell, 8-7, to Guilderland, N.Y., in the tournament semi-finals.
The Force reached the final four with a 7-3 win over the Frozen Ropes Lady Outlaws of Albany, N.Y. C.C. Clark went 3-for-3, and Charlotte Kotski and McKinley Bushika each had two hits, including a double apiece, in a 12-hit Force attack.
Peyton Demary struck out six in a complete-game effort to pitch the Force into the semi-finals.
There, Guilderland built a 7-0 run midway through the fourth before the Force started chipping away.
Camille Descanio drove in a run in the bottom of the fourth to get her team on the board, and Cali’Ray St. John doubled in a run in the fifth to make it 7-2.
After Guilderland tacked on a run in the top of the sixth, Emma Wixsom’s two-run singled keyed a five-run rally that saw Kotski hit an infield single to drive in Bushika and get the Force within a run with two out.
But with the tying run at third, Guilderland got the game’s final out on a line drive to second to advance to the title game.
