-The Brattleboro Little League 10-U All-Stars defeated Bennington, 2-1, on June 14 to win the District 2 championship and advance to the state tournament.
Brattleboro earned home field for the best-of-three championship round with a 10-0 win in four innings over Bennington on July 7.
The championship series got off to a rough start for Brattleboro with a 4-1 loss to Bennington in the first game on July 9. Winning pitcher Reagan Seddon struck out 10 Brattleboro batters over 5 2/3 innings.
Bennington scored a pair of runs in the third inning as Seddon shut down the Brattleboro bats. Brattleboro's only run came in the fifth inning when Teddy McKay doubled and scored on a ground ball by Mason Rea. Simon Potter took the loss for Brattleboro; he threw five innings and loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth before Rea came in to relieve Potter.
McKay got the start for Brattleboro in Game 2 on July 13, and he threw a complete game shutout to blank Bennington, 5-0, and even the series. Great defense made the difference for Brattleboro, highlighted by a great sliding catch by center fielder Brodie Houle in the second inning and steady play by the infield.
Brattleboro got its first two runs in the third inning when Hayden Scott reached on an infield single and scored on a fielders' choice by Major Rodriguez. McKay later got an insurance run with an RBI single that scored Patrick Carroll.
Bennington's defense helped give Brattleboro two more runs in the fourth inning as some fielding miscues set up a two-run double by Benson Urban. Potter drew a bases-loaded walk in the fifth inning for Brattleboro's fifth and final run.
The dates and times for the state tournament were unavailable at press time.
Brattleboro 12-U team knocked out of district playoffs
• The Brattleboro 12-U All Stars were eliminated from the District 2 tournament with losses to Rutland County and Bennington in the final two games of the first round of the tournament.
On July 6, Rutland clinched the top seed and home field advantage in the championship round with a 4-3 win over Brattleboro in White's Park in Rutland. With the game tied 3-3 in the bottom of the sixth, an errant throw allowed Rutland's Owen Brady to score from third with the winning run.
The next day, at South Main Street Field, Bennington punched their ticket for the district final with a 9-2 win over Brattleboro. A three-run homer by Cooper Andrick keyed a big fourth inning for Bennington that put the game out of reach.
Rutland would go on to win the district championship, taking the best-of-three series, 2-1. It's the first district championship for Rutland, which began its Little League program just seven years ago.
Members of the Brattleboro 12-U team were Eli DePue, Bentley Sparks, Eldie Coplan, Allen Lawley, Oliver Baker, Owen Houghton, Brody LaRock, Hunter Bush, Daniel Oakley, Andrew Waselein, Carter Rhodes, and Vinny Doell. John Baker was the head coach, with Trey Sparks and Justin LaRock as assistants.
Legion baseball roundup
• Brattleboro Post 5 keeps rolling along. They ended last week in first place with a 9-2 record in the Vermont American Legion Baseball Southern Division.
Post 5 compiled a 5-1 record to win the Floyd Rock Memorial Tournament in Morrisonville, New York, on July 4–7, but when Brattleboro got back into league play on July 9 against Ludlow Post 36, they lost, 10-5, in eight innings at Gouin Field in Dummerston.
Ludlow scored five runs in the top of the eighth to win the game. Eli Boxer went 3-for-3 and drove in four runs and was the winning pitcher in relief for Post 36. Lance Cutler took the loss in relief for Post 5. John Satterfield, Jackson Emery, and Evan Wright each had two hits for Brattleboro.
On July 11, Brattleboro headed north to Hartford and took out their frustration over the Ludlow loss by beating up on White River Junction Post 84 in a 20-3 win in five innings. Post 5 got things going with 12 runs on nine hits in the first inning and never looked back. Emery led the way with three hits, including a triple.
Alex McClelland, Aidan Davis, Ryan Peloso, and Sam Bogart each had two hits. Pitchers Jake Glidden, Emery, Karson Elliot, and Davis combined to hold Post 84 to just four hits.
Post 5 then swept a doubleheader from Lakes Region on July 13 at Gouin Field. Brattleboro won the first game, 6-2, and took the nightcap, 11-2.
• Bellows Falls Post 37 started last week with a 13-1 road loss to Ludlow Post 36 in five innings on July 7. Post 37's only run came in the first inning off a squeeze bunt by Trenton Fletcher that scored Eli Allbee. Ludlow responded by tying the game in the first inning and then scoring seven runs in the third inning and five runs in the fourth.
Post 37 picked up their first win of the season on July 9 with a 5-3 victory over White River Junction Post 84 at Hubbard Field in Walpole, New Hampshire. Post 37 rallied in the fifth inning for four runs to take the lead to stay. Fletcher started the rally with a bases-loaded squeeze bunt that scored Allbee from third base to tie the game at 2-2. Devyn Cheeney followed with an RBI single for the go-ahead run, and Post 37 added two more runs to take a 5-2 lead into the sixth inning.
Post 37 got good pitching performances from Jaden Bazin, who started the game with two scoreless innings, and Matt Goss, who pitched the final five innings to earn the win. Jake Moore and Alden Weld led the Bellows Falls offense with two hits each, while Cheeney drove in two runs.
On July 11, Post 37 lost to Manchester Union Underground, 11-3, at Hadley Field. With the game tied 2-2 after three innings, Manchester scored four runs in the fourth inning and four more in the fifth to cruise to victory. Steven Joslyn, Jake Tostrup, Fletcher, and Moore shared the pitching duties in the loss.
Ludlow took on Bellows Falls again on July 12, this time at Hadley Field, and Ludlow pitcher Tanner Swisher held Post 37 to just four hits over 6 2/3 innings in a 4-0 victory. Cheeney went the distance for Bellows Falls and held Ludlow scoreless until they scored four runs in the sixth inning to end his shutout bid.
Alicia Dana to miss Paralympics due to drug mixup
• Alicia Dana of Putney, a three-time medalist in Paralympic handcycling, was barred from competing in the 2024 Paralympic trials last week after testing positive for a banned substance.
According to Seven Days, the 55-year-old Dana said that the positive test was the result of using a topical cream she was unaware contained clostebol, an anabolic steroid.
Dana told the paper she was in Maniago, Italy, for the Para-Cycling Road World Cup in May when she bought an ointment to prevent infection on an open pressure sore, a common injury among paraplegic individuals. A pharmacist directed her to Trofodermin, a cream available over the counter in Italy. A few days after Dana returned to Putney, she received notice that her urine test had come back positive for an anabolic steroid. She said she dug the Trofodermin tube out of her trash can and found clostebol among its ingredients.
"You go in there, and you don't see all those familiar brands that you see in a pharmacy in the States," Dana told Seven Days. "Of course, it's all in Italian, so it's kind of hard to know what's what."
Seven Days reported that a representative from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency confirmed that Dana tested positive for a banned substance on May 23 and she was provisionally suspended, effective June 26. She is appealing the suspension, but it is unlikely she will be able to compete in the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris in August.
The Paris games were to be the last hurrah for Dana, who won the Boston Marathon handcycle race for the third time in April. She had won a silver medal at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio and two bronzes in the Tokyo games in 2021, and two World Cup titles in 2015 and 2017.
"I've had an incredible career, which I'm extremely grateful for," Dana told Seven Days. "It's ironic and sad that it should culminate like this, but you know, it is what it is."
Farewell, Claudia
• One of the most difficult, and enjoyable, interviews that I have done in my 14 years at The Commons was in January 2020, when I was invited for a visit to the Westminster homestead of Claudia Franc Williams, the youngest and last surviving child of Red Sox legend Ted Williams.
Claudia had recently completed the renovation of the home that her late mother, Dolores Wettach, bought in the 1960s with her earnings from being a top fashion model in Vogue and other magazines. It was now "The Splendid Splinter," a bed-and-breakfast filled with photos and memorabilia from her parents' careers.
I came as a fan. Ted Williams' final home run in his last at-bat in the major leagues happened exactly one year before the date of my birth. I grew up with the after-Ted - the guy whose name was on all the fishing and camping supplies from Sears, the guy who hawked Nissen bread on TV with the one sportswriter he liked, Bud Leavitt of the Bangor Daily News, the guy who showed up at the Red Sox spring training camp in Winter Haven, Florida, every year to show the young'uns how to hit.
I read his autobiography as a youth aspiring (and failing) at baseball and, later, all the subsequent biographies and got a fuller understanding of this complex hero - a Marine Corps combat pilot in Korea, a world-class fisherman, and one of the greatest hitters in the history of Major League Baseball.
I also came into the interview knowing about Claudia's wariness about the media. I respected her wishes to not rehash the messy ending of the lives of the people most dear in her life, and we focused on the love - the love between her parents, the love within her family, and the love that drove her to restore her mother's home.
Growing up the daughter of two complex, headstrong parents, and still managing to carve out an identity and a purpose apart from them takes strength. She managed to pull it off, and had the scars to prove it. Yet she was kind enough to open her heart to me, not as Ted Williams's daughter, but as someone who was negotiating that stage of life we all have to negotiate eventually- going through your adult life without your parents.
Claudia Williams, who grew up in Westminster, attended Westminster Center School and Bellows Falls Union High School, graduated from Springfield College, and later became a nurse practitioner, died at the age of 52 in December 2023. Her death was not announced until last week, when the Red Sox issued a statement. She is survived by her husband of 17 years, Eric Abel, of Hernando, Florida.
Senior bowling roundup
• Week 11 of the spring/summer season of the Brattleboro Senior Bowling League at Brattleboro Bowl on July 11 saw Misguided (38.5-16.5) move into first place, just a half-game ahead of Half Normal (38-17). Slo Movers (37.5-17.5) is now in third place, followed by Fab 4 (30-25), Three Musketeers (26-29), Spare Change (25-30), Split Happens and Stayin' Alive (both 22-33), High Rollers (15-40), and Incredibowls (15-15).
Kathy Wehner had the women's high handicap game (239) and series (654). Marty Adams had the men's high handicap game (268), while Jerry Dunham had the high handicap series (678). High Rollers had the high team handicap game (908) and Stayin' Alive had the high handicap series (2,560).
Dunham and John Walker both had the men's high scratch series (561), with Walker rolling a 213 game and Dunham with games of 205 and 180. Chuck Adams had a 549 series with a 210 game, while Robert Rigby had a 534 series with games of 190 and 188. Marty Adams had a 529 series with a 236 game, while Warren Corriveau Sr. and Skip Shine each had a 523 series. Corriveau had a 227 game, and Shine had a 181 game. Gary Montgomery had a 515 series with games of 194 and 187, and Wayne Randall had a 511 series with a 180 game. Charlie Marchant had a 189 game and Milt Sherman had a 182 game.
Nancy Dalzell had the women's high scratch series (448), while Carol Gloski had the high scratch game (170). Dalzell had a 157 game, Deb Kolpa had games of 153 and 150, and Sandy Ladd, Pat Bentrup, and Wehner each had a 150 game.
Randolph T. Holhut, deputy editor of this newspaper, has written this column since 2010 and has covered sports in Windham County since the 1980s. Readers can send him sports information at [email protected].
This Sports column by Randolph T. Holhut was written for The Commons.