NAFD/NAPD Forces Championship Final in Women's League
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – North Adams Fire Department/Police Department scored three runs in the top of the sixth to take a one-run lead and held on for a 5-4 win over Belle Ame Lashes in the championship round of the North Adams Women’s Softball League.
Carrie Brassard went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI and Kenzie Dobbert recorded a pair of strikeouts as NAFD/ NAPD forced a winner-take-all finale on Tuesday night to conclude the double-elimination tournament.
It was a pitchers’ duel early between Lashes’ Sarah Sweet and Dobbert, who started a 1-3 double play on a line drive back to the circle and speared another line drive for the third out in the third inning.
Sweet got out of a jam after putting runners on first and second to start the third with three straight outs to help keep it a 0-0 game going to the fourth.
In the top of the fourth, the first responders scored the game’s first two runs.
Heather Morris got things started with a leadoff single to left and moved into scoring position on Brassard’s single.
Morris came home when Anna Dix singled up the middle, and an infield error allowed NAFD/NAPD to score its second run.
It stayed 2-0 until the bottom of the fifth, when second-seeded Lashes, which advanced through the winners’ bracket, rallied for four runs.
Morgan Kiersted worked a leadoff walk to start the rally.
An errant throw put runners at second and third with one out before Lashes got back-to-back singles from Jackie Larochelle and Ashton Smead to make it 2-2.
Larochelle came home on Logan Stansfield’s single to left, and a bases-loaded walk to Morgan Shafer made it 4-2.
A leadoff single from Morris started the top of the sixth, and Brassard’s RBI double made it 4-3. Brassard, who went to third on a throw home, then scored when Cheyanne Alcombright reached on an error to tie it.
Alcombright reached second on a fly ball to left and took third on Ava Cariddi’s single to put runners at the corners. Dobbert then reached on a groundball up the middle for an RBI fielder’s choice to give the First Responders a 5-4 lead.
Sweet got a comebacker to the circle to end the rally.
And Dobbert held serve from there, allowing just two out singles in the bottom of the sixth and the seventh, without allowing a runner in scoring position.
The game ended when Alcombright charged for a shoestring catch in left field for the final out.
Tuesday’s Championship Game is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Disanti Field.
