Both the 9-10-year-old and 11-12-year-old Brattleboro Little League All-Star teams have begun their respective District 2 tournaments.
In the 11-12 tourney opener, the defending state champs lost to Connecticut Valley South, 6-5. Marcus Shapiro was the starting pitcher for Brattleboro, but was removed when he hit the league-maximum of 85 pitches before he could finish the sixth inning.
Shapiro gave up four hits, two walks and six runs, while striking out seven. Blake Bashaw faced the game's final two batters and struck out one of them. Lyndon Bunker was 2-for-3 at the plate and Shapiro was 2-for-2 with two runs scored. Tyler McKenney entered the game in the fourth and hit a two-run single.
In their next game against Bennington, Brattleboro lost 10-4. Alex Harrison provided the main highlight with his first-ever home run over the South Main Street field's fence. Harrison also had another hit and Lyndon Bunker added two hits.
With two losses to open their tournament, the 11-12 All-Stars now have no margin for error. Brattleboro has to win the rest of their games to stay alive.
The 9-10 All-Stars began their tourney by outlasting Connecticut Valley South, 13-10. Danny Petrie was the winning pitcher and Leif Bigelow got the save, while Ian Fulton-Black was 4-for-4 at the plate and Tyler Germain and catcher Tanner Bell both went 3-for-4.
This game turned on an alert play by Bell in the top half of the fourth inning. CV South took an apparent 9-3 lead after a two-out, three-run homer. But after the CV runners had circled the bases and taken their seats on the bench, Bell told the home plate umpire that the first CV base runner had never touched home plate. The umpire agreed and called the runner out to nullify the three-run homer and end the inning.
Brattleboro then capitalized on Bell's heads-up play by scoring 10 runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 13-6 lead that they never relinquished.
Winning pitcher Leif Bigelow threw five strong innings in Brattleboro's 9-3 victory over Bennington in Game 2. Tyler Germain pitched one inning of relief and Danny Petrie went 3-for-3 with two runs scored.
Post 37 comes up short against Rutland
The Bellows Falls Post 37 American Legion baseball team had been on a roll with an impressive 10-1 record, until they ran into the hot bats of Rutland Post 31.
Rutland pounded the baseball up and down the lineup while the pitching of Kyle Horvath kept Bellows Falls batters off balance in a 10-1 victory at Hadley Field last Thursday.
Ed Lewicki led the 16-hit, offensive charge for Rutland with three hits and a walk, while Sam Major had three hits (including two doubles), two runs and an RBI. Other offensive contributors included Geoff Bloomer, with two hits and three RBI's, and two hits each from Mike Triller, T.J. Oliver and Alex Miskovsky.
The battery of Horvath and catcher Nate Swahn also kept Bellows Falls from getting any rallies going, with the lefty picking a runner off first base in each of the first three innings, while Swain wiped out two more threats by throwing out potential base stealers at second base.
Overall, Horvath scattered just three hits over six innings and walked six batters, but his control (or lack thereof) did not hurt him in the end, since his pickoff move caught so many Post 37 base runners off guard.
“It no doubt, affected our offense a lot,” Post 37 coach Bob Lockerby told reporters after the game.
Derek Osborne got the start for Post 37 and took the loss, with Ben Hewitt pitching the sixth and Eric Laurendeau the seventh.
Rutland not only avenging their only loss of the season by beating Bellows Falls, they also moved into first place in the Southern Division with the win. They are now 11-1.
Post 37 bounced back on Saturday by scoring a run in the bottom of the ninth to squeak out a 9-8 win over South Royalton at Hadley Field.
South Royalton had scored six runs in the eighth inning to tie the game at 8-8 heading into the last inning, before Post 37 pulled off the dramatic win.
After a double by Nick Gendron, an intentional walk and a sacrifice bunt-turned base hit loaded the bases, Jeremy Kilburn executed a perfect squeeze bunt to send in the winning run.
Derek Osborne got the win in relief for Bellows Falls and Osborne and Chris Marcucci led the offense with two hits each.
However, Post 37 then ran into a buzz saw on Sunday, dropping two games at Bennington Post 13. Bellows Falls lost 7-3 in the first game and got shut out in the night cap, 3-0.
Post 37's Ben Hewitt deserved a better fate in that 3-0 loss. He threw a complete game while giving up just five hits and three walks.
With the sweep, Bennington moves into second place with an 11-2 record. Post 37 is now in third place at 10-4 with just two weeks to go before the state American Legion Baseball tournament in Barre on July 23-27.
Post 5 shuts out Fair Haven
Brattleboro recently improved their Southern Division record to 6-4 with an impressive 6-0 win over Fair Haven on Sunday.
Post 5 hurler Devin Rhodes was dominant, throwing a complete-game, three-hitter while striking out 11. Rhodes also helped his own cause with two hits at the plate, while three of his teammates - Brendan Reilly, Troy Scott, Issac Earle - had two hits each and Rob Mire pitched in with two RBI's.
Last Tuesday, Sawyer Olson struck out 12 while allowing just three hits and one walk in his complete game victory to lead Post 5 over Windsor, 8-1.
Jamie Martell went 3-for-4 on the day with three RBI. Evan Parro was 3-for-5 and Kyle Whitworth went 2-for-3 as Brattleboro had 12 hits as a team.
Local hoopsters play in Twin State game
Three local high school basketball players recently participated in the 30th annual Merchants Bank/Rotary Twin State Basketball Classic on Saturday at the University of Vermont's Patrick Gym.
Brattleboro Union High School's Adam Boyle and Twin Valley High School's Scott Hayford and Devon Spirka were chosen to participate in the annual hoop game. This year, the Vermont boys' team won for the second consecutive year, 88-73, while on the girls' side, New Hampshire came out on top, 60-56.
New Hampshire has an 18-12 series advantage in both the boys and girls games.
In the boys' game, it was close early in the first quarter, before Vermont took control, outscoring the Granite State by 24 points to take a 50-28 lead at the half. However, New Hampshire came back on the strength of 3-pointers, hitting seven of them in the second half. However, Vermont kept their composure and won the game at the foul line, hitting 17 free throws in the second half to keep New Hampshire at bay.
Boyle had a great offensive game with 16 points, while Hayford played tough defense and crashed the boards. For New Hampshire, Alex LaRose led the way with 12 points.
On the girls side, New Hamshire had their lead to as much as 15 points in the first half, however Vermont made a comeback in the second half to tie the score in the waning moments. The two teams went back and fourth over the final two minutes before the Granite Staters finally pulled it out on two clutch free throws from Winnacunnet's Tiffany Ruffin (who will be playing hoops for Boston College in the fall) to ice the game, 60-56.
Vermont got excellent efforts from West Rutland's Katie Lincoln, Rutland's Liz Douglas, who was named Vermont's Most Outstanding Player and Windsor's Morghan Farnsworth.
Twin Valley's Cipriano to play In Lions Cup
The 35th annual Twin State Soccer Cup, which features the top graduated seniors from Vermont and New Hampshire, recently named Twin Valley's Jared Cipriano to play in this year's contest held on July 17 at Castleton State College's Spartan Stadium.
Cipriano, who had a strong spring in helping Twin Valley take second place in the Division III state track and field championships, was the co-captain of the Wildcats' 2009 boys' soccer squad, which lost in the Division IV semifinals to Sharon Academy, 3-2.
TV finished with an 11-3-1 regular season record and won their third straight Marble Valley League's C Division title. Cipriano was named to the All-MVL team.