BRATTLEBORO — After sweeping through their district tournament, the Brattleboro 9-10-year-old Little League All Stars made it all the way to the finals of the state tournament in St. Albans before being overpowered by South Burlington, 12-2, in the championship game on Monday.
Brattleboro beat Barre, 9-6, in the opening game on Friday. Pitchers Leif Bigelow, Tanner Bell and Tyler Germain spilt the mound duties as Brattleboro rallied for five runs in the third inning. Bell led the Brattleboro hitters with a 3-for-4 day, while Ian Fulton-Black went 2-for-4.
There was a brief detour on Saturday when they lost 12-0 to South Burlington, but Brattleboro rallied on Sunday to beat Georgia, 7-4, to earn the right to face South Burlington for the state title.
Bell was the starting pitcher in the Georgia game and threw 4 2/3 innings to get the win. Fulton-Black and Devin Millerick finished up to preserve Bell's victory. Bigelow had a 3-for-3 day with a triple and Fulton-Black was 3-for-4.
In Monday's game with South Burlington, Bigelow scattered 10 hits and struck three to take the loss. Germain and Fulton-Black, who scored Brattleboro's only runs, finished up on the mound.
All in all, this team did well in its first taste of playoff baseball, and perhaps gave us a preview of great things to come as the players move up to the 11-12 division in the next couple of years.
Brattleboro 13-year-old Babe Ruth All-Stars still alive
The 13-year-old Brattleboro Babe Ruth All-Stars went 3-1 over the weekend in the state tournament.
Brattleboro started the tourney Friday with a 14-2 win over Champlain Valley. A 3-1 loss to Essex on Saturday dropped Brattleboro into the losers bracket, but Brattleboro bounced back on Sunday with a 11-5 win over Champlain Valley and a 11-4 win over Essex to force a third game with Essex on Monday for the championship.
If Brattleboro wins Monday, they advance to the New England Regional, which will be played at Hawthorne Field in Winooski.
Winter Dew Tour dumps Mount Snow
The Deerfield Valley News reported last week that AllSports, the Illinois-based promoters of the Winter Dew Tour, will not be returning to Mount Snow next year.
Why is this popular snowboarding event, which attracted top Olympic and X-Games champions to the Deerfield Valley in 2009 and 2010, dropping Mount Snow? Apparently, it's because it wants bigger halfpipes.
Promoters say they want to switch t0 22-foot-halfpipes. Competitors have demanded taller halfpipes so they do most spectacular stunts, and Mount Snow's halfpipe is only 18 feet high.
“Winter Dew Tour also adds a new resort into the mix when it heads to Vermont's Killington Resort for the second stop from Jan. 20-23, and with the move comes the shred-ready 22-foot superpipe,” a press release from the Alliance of Action Sports noted, describing Killington as “one of New England's gems with a network of six mountains and the highest gondola-serviced point in the entire region.”
Mount Snow was willing to build a bigger halfpipe, but it would not have been ready in time for the 2011 event.
Losing the Dew Tour is a huge blow for Mount Snow and the Deerfield Valley. The event attracted 24,000 people in 2009 and 33,000 people this year, among the highest weekend attendance figures for the resorts on the tour. It was definitely a money-making event for AllSports, Mount Snow and the Deerfield Valley.
In the meantime, the resort is introducing the Mount Snow Triathlon on Aug. 7 and 8. “Women, men and teams are welcome to this beginner friendly triathlon that features a swim in Snow Lake, a 12-mile bike ride on Handle Road, and a run through the Mount Snow property,” the resort's website (www.mountsnow.com) reports.
It is, the organizers say, “a new event to Mount Snow that is uniquely ours.”
Retire? Not Bill Murphy
Bill Murphy's main career for the past four decades has been in education. But he has also been a freelance print and broadcast sports reporter around New England for almost as long, and still managed to find time to coach high school basketball in the winter and umpire high school baseball games in the spring.
This fall will be the first in 39 years that Murphy - the former longtime principal at Grafton Elementary School - won't be inside a schoolhouse. Budget cuts at Hartford High School resulted in the elimination of Murphy's assistant principal post.
But the 62-year-old Murphy is not looking to slow down. He told the Rutland Herald last week that he's now living in Hyannis, Mass., and working for a new monthly sports tabloid focused on Cape Cod called Hometown Sports.
Murphy has the cover story for the debut issue - an interview with Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek on how playing in the Cape Cod League shaped his major league career.
He is also at Fenway Park most nights, covering the Red Sox' home games for 11 radio stations around New England. He is also writing a sports column for the Shopper and the Vermont Journal and is writing pieces for the Northeast Sports Network.
About the only indication that Murphy is slowing down is that he said he's stepping down as the varsity boys' basketball coach at Vermont Academy.