Berkshire Force loses regional final, secures place in World Series / iBerkshires.com

PITTSFIELD, Mass. – The Berkshire Force 12-and-under travel softball team scored five runs in the sixth inning Sunday but failed to beat the Stamford, Connecticut, Stars in a 14-8 game to claim the Babe Ruth New England Regional championship.

Stamford took advantage of eight errors by the Force and was able to pull ahead with five runs in the fourth inning and two more in the fifth inning to secure the regional title.

However, both teams qualified for the Babe Ruth World Series in July.

The Stars already qualified for the national tournament in May by winning a tournament in Londonderry, NH, so there is still one open position for this weekend’s tournament at the Doyle Complex.

The Force, who beat Windham, NH, on Saturday afternoon, advanced through the losers bracket and earned a rematch against the Stars, earned the weekend’s runner-up a chance to travel to Alabama for the World Series from July 23 to August 1.

At the beginning it looked as if the home team would beat Stamford and, “if necessary,” force a regional championship match against the winner of the winning group.

The Force scored three runs with just one hit in the first inning.

Addison Farkas and Cassidy Flynn each worked a walk before Gianna Moses came home with a single and Farkas came home. Flynn and Moses then came home when Lexi Witherell scored on an RBI to left and an error by Stamord allowed Moses to come home from second base on this play.

Stamford immediately responded with three runs in the bottom of the first inning, taking advantage of three errors by the Force in that inning.

“I don’t want to make any excuses, but playing three games yesterday and (Stamford) only playing one is tough on our girls,” Force coach Mike Lodowski said. “I know it’s softball. It’s not football. But it still wears them out.”

With Stamford winning 2-0 in the group stage on Friday, a win on Saturday afternoon was enough to reach the final round on Sunday. Berkshire played three times on Saturday and once on Sunday – a total of four games in about 26 hours.

“Our first games (of the day) are always tough,” Lodowski said. “Our first innings are always tough. These guys are going at it and we’ve always had trouble waking up for some reason. Especially at home tournaments where we can’t get our girls to bed early — when we go away, we get them to bed early. When we’re home, I can’t control what time they go to bed or if they’re in their pool at night.”

Stamford took a four-run lead in the third inning, two of them unearned, with highlights including a two-run double by Madison McGrath (2-for-3, four RBIs).

Force pitchers Cassidy Flynn and Olivia Archambault shared time in the circle and allowed a combined eight earned runs.

Flynn started and moved to shortstop when Lodowski made the switch to Archambault between the third and fourth innings.

“Liv, at the last minute it came out that her wrist was hurting,” he said. “But we still wanted her to throw. We wanted to see a different change. She has a mix of curve balls and a few drops. I don’t know if we called the drops, but she threw them.”

Stamford used two hits, three walks and a hit batter to take a 12-3 lead before adding another hit in the fifth inning that put the Force in a 14-3 hole.

In the final at-bat for a regional title, Berkshire delivered his best offensive inning in three attempts against the Stars this weekend.

Flynn got things rolling by reaching a base on an error, and Moses and Witherell followed with singles to make it 14-4 and put runners on the corners.

After Stamford’s Kate Dettmer struck out, Tori Blanchard hit a double to center field that scored Moses and Whitherell, cut the deficit to eight runs and fired up the Force and its fans.

Daisy Caron then hit a single and made a throw to third base, putting two runners in favorable position with one out.

Dettmer managed a strikeout, but Kaylana Altman made it to first base on an outfield error with two bases to go, bringing both Blanchard and Caron home to make it 14-8.

Berkshire’s hopes of a comeback were then dashed when Dettmer groundballed out of the inning and the game, securing the championship title.

Lodowski said the regional tournament, which also featured games in the 8U and 10U age groups, will be rewarding for his players both in terms of the competition they experienced and for the sport in Berkshire County in general.

“We would love to see more girls playing softball,” he said after the Force’s tournament opener Friday. “I have a daughter who plays in college and she went through the Force program. We want to see girls develop, play and excel in this sport. It’s a great sport. It’s the fourth most watched sport on TV when they play the College World Series.”

“We want more girls to play softball. We have a really big recreational league. We need more girls to come out and play. I think now that the COVID thing is over, our 10U organization has a lot of teams, and they’re starting to creep in. Whereas our 12-, 14-, 16-year-olds are still a little thin. Maybe that’s the COVID effect. … We’re going to be really good again, like we were maybe six, seven years ago.”

In the short term, this year’s edition of the Berkshire Force 12U faces the challenge of raising funds to cover the costs for families of the team’s trip to Florence, Alabama, the site of the World Series. Team manager Jessica Faille Sunday said anyone interested in sponsoring the trip can contact the club at [email protected].