The Pittsfield Americans Tuesday beat Longmeadow, 11-5, to win the Section 1 title, advance to the state tournament and run their all-star record to 7-0 this summer. Cooper Reed struck out seven in 4-⅓ innings, and Jack Wendling went 3-for-3 with a double, two stolen bases and four runs scored. Pittsfield, which went 4-0 at the District 1 tournament, knocked off Longmeadow for the second time in three days to win the sectional through the winners bracket. The Americans scored first in the bottom of the first at Deming Park and built its lead to 4-0 with a three-run second to take command.
Jackson Boehm, the last of six reserves for Pittsfield to crack the lineup, hit a leadoff single in the top of the sixth to ignite a six-run rally that gave Pittsfield a 9-5 win over Longmeadow in the Section 1 tournament. No. 3 hitter Aiden Arsenault and cleanup man Cooper Reed delivered back-to-back two-run doubles in the middle of the game-winning rally, but it all started with Boehm, the third player to hit in the No. 8 spot in the lineup. It was nice to see Jackson come off the bench, take a nice simple swing, make contact, basehit up the middle, and, yeah, that got it started, Pittsfield manager B.J. Jefferson said.
The last practice we had, 10 players in a row missed the bunt, Jefferson said after the Pittsfield Little League American Division 10-year-old All-Stars defeated Holden, 10-0, in five innings on Friday. Couldn t get a bunt down to safe our life. And all of a sudden . thank God they re game players and not practice players. Bunts were critical to the Americans in opening the double-elimination Section 1 tournament with a victory at Deming Park. In the second inning, Jacob Welch and Jacob Knauth laid down back-to-back sacrifice bunts in a four-run rally. In the third, Kydd Kearns bunted for an RBI and a base hit in the middle of another four-run rally. In the fifth, Jack Wendling sacrificed to move Cooper Brown into scoring position with the run that eventually ended the game on Ryan Albuquerque s walkoff basehit.
The Americans scored more than twice as many runs as its opponent had plate appearances in a 23-1 win over Dalton-Hinsdale to advance to the state sectional tournament. But all that offense was superfluous with a lights-out pitching performance from the tandem of Cooper Reed and Jack Wendling. Reed struck out five in two innings of work and allowed just one unearned run before turning the ball over to Wendling with a 22-run lead. Wendling got the first two batters he faced on ground balls before getting a swinging third strike to end the game. “Our pitching staff, even in their house league, they continue to throw strikes non-stop, and it was nice to see them coming in and doing the job, getting the job done,” Pittsfield Americans manager B.J. Jefferson said.