The last team of Brattleboro Little League All-Stars to play in the postseason, the 10-11-year-olds, were the host team for the state tournament at the South Main Street Field over the weekend.
Only three programs fielded teams for this tournament: Brattleboro, South Burlington, and Essex. Brattleboro got a free pass into the double-elimination tournament after Bennington chose not to field an 10-11-year-old team, so Brattleboro had more than month off between the end of the regular season and the start of this tourney.
Brattleboro showed a few signs of rust in their opener on Saturday, but generally played well in a 4-3 seven-inning loss to South Burlington.
Luke Mann's two-run double gave South Burlington a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Brattleboro took a 3-2 lead in the third. Haley Derosia drove in a run with a base hit; Seamus Buckley pushed in a run with a ground out to first; and Jakob Curtiss scored on a wild pitch.
A throwing error in the fifth inning allowed South Burlington's Carson Cherry to score from third and tie the game. Brattleboro had a golden chance to get the go-ahead run in the seventh when Curtiss reached on a error and ended up on third base with no outs. But Cherry, pitching in relief of starter Roan O'Leary and middle-relief man Jack Ambrosino, retired the next three batters in order to get out of the jam.
Brattleboro's Dylan Carrasquillo, pitching in relief of starter Tyler Millerick and reliever Nick Campbell, got out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth. His luck ran out in the South Burlington seventh. With runners at second and third with two outs, Tyler Willard looped a single into shallow center field to score Cherry and end the game.
On Sunday, Brattleboro knocked Essex out of the tournament with an 11-5 win. Derosia, Curtiss, and Carroll combined for the win on the mound. Curtiss and Carroll also got some big hits in the fifth inning, when Brattleboro put the game away.
South Burlington and Brattleboro faced each other again on Monday night for the championship, and South Burlington rolled to a 17-0 win.
According to Brattleboro Little League secretary Jim Waters, this is the first time that South Burlington has swept the state championships in all three age groups, 9-10, 10-11, and 11-12. This was also the third time in five years that a South Burlington team came to Brattleboro for a state tournament and left town as champions.
Waters said that the Brattleboro Little League was considering restructuring for the 2014 season.
The Brattleboro team was coached by Stephen Clark. Other members of the team included Anthony Palomba, Tanner Root, Keegan Givens, and Charlie Galanes.
Quick exit for Post 5 at Legion tourney
• Brattleboro Post 5 was the first team eliminated from the Vermont American Legion Baseball Tournament last week.
Post 5, the No. 4 seed from the South, opened the tournament last Thursday afternoon at Castleton with a 12-7 loss to Addison County, the North's top seed.
Winning pitcher Charlie Stapleford held Brattleboro to just four hits, and helped himself by driving three runs with a pair of hits. Ian Shaw went four for five and drove in four runs. Evan Parro had two hits for Brattleboro, which held an early 2-0 lead before Addison took the lead to stay with three runs in the third.
The next morning, Brattleboro faced Lake Region at St. Peter's Field in Rutland, and lost 4-1 to earn an early exit from the double elimination tournament.
Brattleboro finished the season with a 10-10 record. Players on this season's team were Jeffrey Kerylow, Chris Lasch, Gerard Roberge, Kevin Paciulli, Evan Parro, Michael Rooney, Hunter Smith, Kevin Tao, Marcus Shapiro, Jamie Lumley, Dan Richardson, Chris McAuliffe, George Atkins, Ryan McAuliffe, Cam Wright, and Jimmy Mills. George Wright was the manager and Jeff Kerylow, Paul McAuliffe, and Tim Rooney were the coaches.
Bellows Falls Post 37 didn't qualify for the tournament, but one of its players was honored at the Championship Tournament banquet. Pitcher Mike LaBeau received the Wayne McLean Scholarship. He's attending Castleton State College this fall to study criminal justice.
Colchester came away with the state Legion title after winning an epic 11-10 game against Bennington on Monday night.
Babe Ruthers knocked out in N.E. tourney
• The Brattleboro 13-year-old Babe Ruth All Stars played in the New England Regional Tournament at Gill Stadium in Manchester, N.H.
Brattleboro got shut out by New Milford, Conn., 10-0, in the opening game on Saturday afternoon.
The next day, Brattleboro kept their hopes alive in the double-elimination tourney by beating host team Manchester, 14-12.
This was a wild one, as Brattleboro led 9-2 after three innings before Manchester tied the game with seven runs in the fourth. Brattleboro rallied back to score five runs and held off one last charge by Manchester in the bottom of the seventh.
Brattleboro faced Westfield, Mass., on Monday night, and got shut out, 8-0.
Members of the 13-year-old All-Stars were Tanner Bell, Lief Bigelow, Tony Martinez, Ben Nelson-Betz, Ian Fulton-Black, Korie Cliche, Tyler Germain, Kam Pelkey, Jack Trudeau, Bridger Grout, Dan Petrie, and Matt Cutter. Todd Bell was the manager and Isaac Earle and Andrew Cavanaugh were the coaches.
Diamond jubilee for Shrine game
• The Vermont and New Hampshire teams are about to wrap up their training camps at Castleton State College as they prepare for the 60th annual Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl, which will be played on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at Dartmouth College's Memorial Field.
The “diamond jubilee” edition of the Shrine game will mark the first year that it has been played at night, which should improve attendance and make playing conditions a little more tolerable than playing in mid-afternoon.
There are three local players on the Vermont squad. Bellows Falls is sending lineman Zachary Tarvit and running back/linebacker Zachary Rawling, while Brattleboro is represented by quarterback/defensive back Tyler Higley.
Vermont and New Hampshire, which leads the all-time series 44-13-2, each select 36 of the top-graduated high school senior football players from their respective states to square off in this game, which raises money for Shriners Hospitals for Children in Springfield, Mass., and Montreal, and for the Shriners Burns Institute in Boston.
New Hampshire won last year's game, 62-24. The Vermont team, coached by Burr & Burton's Jason Thomas, is expected to operate from a spread offense. New Hampshire, coached by Ray Kershaw of Mascoma Valley, will use a wing-T.
A more recent Shrine tradition is the Shrine All-Star Band, made up of 110 musicians from both Vermont and New Hampshire. Tuba player Andy Gadowski and bass drummer Owen Schneider are Brattleboro's representatives in the band. They'll perform in the pre-game parade, which starts at noon, and in the halftime show.
More than 4,000 players have participated in the event over past six decades, of which about two-thirds still live in the Twin States. Game organizers say all are invited back Aug. 3 to march in the pre-game parade and be recognized at halftime.
Tickets for the game are available at www.maplesugarbowl.com. General admission tickets are $8 in advance; $10 on game day. Reserved seats are $20.
Grafton Ponds hosts 'Bump Your Rump' race
• Grafton Ponds Outdoor Center will host its third annual “Bump Your Rump” six-hour mountain bike race on Sunday, Aug. 25.
“Bump Your Rump” is a six-hour cross-country mountain biking race that measures competitors' endurance and skill; the more laps completed, the greater the bragging rights. The course is more than five miles long and located throughout the single track and ski trails within the Grafton Ponds trail network.
Registration opens at 7 a.m. and the race will begin at 9 a.m. Register online at www.BikeReg.com. Racers can ride on their own or create relay teams of up to four people. The cost is $50 per person and includes lunch after the race. Awards will be given to the female and male contestants with most laps completed. The event, open to all ages, is co-sponsored by the Grafton Ponds Outdoor Center and the West Hill Shop in Putney.