Scarborough’s 11- and 12-year-old softball all-stars, on their third consecutive trip to the East Regional tournament of Little League Softball, had powered through their first two contests; the squad crushed a team from Essex, Vt., 10-2 on Saturday and Derry, N.H. 13-3 on Monday.
On Tuesday morning, they ran into a tough Rhode Island squad and lost 15-3, giving up 12 runs in the fifth inning. They were scheduled to face Massachusetts at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.
“They have good pitching and a solid defense,” says Scarborough’s coach Chris Kelley, of the Rhode Island team prior to the matchup. “So we’re going to put the ball in play and run the bases and use our strengths.”
The loss wasn’t a fatal one, however, since the regional qualified for the Little League Softball World Series is double-elimination.
Scarborough, 12-1 on the season, earned their berth in the regional tournament by recently winning the state crown over Shaker Valley, 6-3. Shaker Valley actually beat Scarborough 8-5 to begin the championship round, but since the tournament, played in Hermon, was double-elimination and Scarborough had the superior record, Shaker Valley needed to upend them twice, which they couldn’t manage. Scarborough, on the other hand, needed just one win, and got it.
At the tail end of last week, Scarborough traveled to Bristol, Conn., to begin a showdown – still playing out, even at the time of this writing, at Leon Breen Memorial Field – with other representative crews from around New England. The Mid-Atlantic tournament is simultaneously unfurling, and come Thursday, crossover play between the two brackets begins. The ultimate winner moves on to Portland, Ore., for the World Series, which begins Aug. 7.
“It’s important for us to win as much as we can in pool play,” Kelley says, “so we can get a nice one or two seed [in crossover play].”
Essex jumped to an early lead in the Saturday game, putting a run on the board in the first and another in the second. Scarborough tied it up with a pair in the third, then busted it wide open in the fourth with seven. They added one more in the fifth for a 10-2 final on nine hits with just one error.
Mia Kelley pitched a complete game, six innings, and threw seven strikeouts. Madison Blanche rocked the plate, going 4-4 (that’s three singles and a double) with two RBIs, while Bella Dickinson went 2-3 with an RBI. Kelley, Blanche and Hannah Gower each crossed home twice.
Again on Monday, the opposition secured an early lead, New Hampshire going up 2-1 after one. But of course, Scarborough was just warming up; in the second and third they exploded, scoring 12 more to end the game after just three and a half.
Dickinson winged seven strikeouts in the short matchup (which coincidentally fell on her 12th birthday), and Sylvia Foley swung big, going 2-2 (singling both times) at the plate.
Scarborough went 2-2 in their 2012 journey to this level, and last year lost to the Robinsville, N.J., crew, who went on to win the East and claim third in the World Series.
Scarborough consists of Dickinson, Blanche, Kelley, Gower, Madison Blanchard, Sydney Michelson, Lauren Wagner, Ava McDonald, Audrey Haigis, Ryanne Cox, Hannah Dobecki and Sylvia Foley. Chris Kelley is the head coach, assisted by Jere Michelson and Dennis Dobecki.
Sydney Michelson, Mia Kelley and Ava McDonald, the lineup’s three returning 12-year-olds, have not only grown into leaders, but also proven critical during play.
Michelson, who plays catcher, “has had some very key hits,” according to Chris Kelley. “She had a three-run homer in our championship game versus Shaker Valley that kind of turned the tide.”
Mia Kelley, the team’s ace, has pitched the majority of their games, obviously a major factor in their success.
Meanwhile, McDonald is “setting the bar on defense,” says Chris Kelley. “Her defense has been phenomenal.”
The Scarborough Little League 11- and 12-year-old softball squad celebrates just after their victory over Shaker Valley to secure the state title.Send questions/comments to the editors.
