The Brattleboro 9-10-year-old Little League All-Star baseball team clinched the District 2 Tournament on Sunday with a 4-2 win over Connecticut Valley South.
Brattleboro now advances to the state tournament, which starts on Thursday in St. Albans.
Dan Petrie went five innings for the victory to get the win, including pitching out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth. Tyler Germaine pitched the sixth to earn a save.
Petrie went 3-for-3 and Germaine went 2-for-2 to lead the Brattleboro offense.
Sunday's win avenged the only loss Brattleboro has had in the tournament, a 4-3 CVS win last Tuesday.
Ian Fulton-Black and Tanner Bell were on the mound for Brattleboro, which had a chance to win in the sixth with a two-out, two-run double by Deven Millerick before falling short.
The All-Stars bounced back from the loss to CVS last Thursday with a 6-4 win over Bennington. Pitchers Leif Bigelow and Petrie combined for the victory.
Millerick went 2-for-3 and drove in three runs. Germain got on base three times and scored twice, while Lynde singled and had an RBI.
12-year-old All Stars knocked out of tourney
After losing their first two games in the District 2 Tournament, the Brattleboro Little League 12-year-old All Stars had their backs to the wall. If they wanted to advance, they had to win all the rest of their games.
Brattleboro kept their hopes alive with a 3-2 win over Connecticut Valley South at the South Main Street field last Tuesday, but the defending state champs lost to Bennington last Thursday, 3-2. It was the first District 2 title for Bennington in five years.
Bennington rallied from a 2-0 deficit to tie the game in the third on a leadoff homer by winning relief pitcher Nick Coyne and an RBI double by Shea Mooney. Lefty slugger Patrick Moore-Powers then homered in the fifth to provide the margin of victory over Brattleboro.
Brattleboro pitcher Lyndon Bunker struck out 10 and walked only one batter in taking the loss. Stephen Kerylow, Marcus Shapiro and Joey Yardley all finished with a couple of hits.
In the Connecticut Valley South game, Brattleboro pitcher Oliver Goodman overcame a shaky first inning and gave up just two runs in five innings of work. Goodman struck out nine and allowed just two hits to pick up the decision. Bunker earned a save with a scoreless sixth.
CVS took a 1-0 lead, but Brattleboro tied the game in the third when Liam Parra singled, took second on a passed ball and scored on a single to center by Braden Meyer.
Brattleboro then scored two more runs in the fourth. Bunker and Blake Bashaw drew back-to-back walks, and both scored on an errant throw by the CVS catcher on a double steal.
Brattleboro Babe Ruth 13-year-old All Stars reach state tourney
Many of the members of last year's 12-year-old Brattleboro Little League All-Star team made the move up this year to Babe Ruth Baseball.
Having won a state championship and coming within a game of playing for the New England title certainly left an impression on the Brattleboro boys, who are continuing their winning ways in the 13-year-old Babe Ruth tournament.
Brattleboro swept their three games in the district tourney, beating Central Vermont 16-4 and Bennington 7-4 before defeating CV again 12-3 to win the district title. They now will play in the state tournament this weekend in St. Albans.
Many of the heroes from last year's Little League champs have continued their stellar play at the Babe Ruth level. Chris McAulliffe had seven hits in the district tourney and Cam Wright had six hits.
Great pitching and defense also helped Brattleboro. George Atkins, Ryan McAuliffe and Kassidi Ramirez were standouts on the mound. The double-play combo of Wright at shortstop and Rob Heilman at second base turned six double plays. Catcher Chris Lasch threw out several baserunners.
Post 5 stays alive for last playoff spot
Only four teams in the Southern Division will go on to play for the state American Legion Baseball championship.
Rutland and Bennington have already clinched the top two spots, but Brattleboro Post 5, Bellows Falls Post 37 and Fair Haven are battling for the final two tickets to the state tournament.
Post 5 kept its playoff hopes alive over the weekend by beating Hartford on Friday, sweeping a doubleheader from Bellows Falls on Saturday and beating last-place Windsor 12-5 on Sunday.
Now 11-6, Post 5 must beat Woodstock on Tuesday in the final regular-season game. If Brattleboro wins, and Fair Haven wins their last three games this week, the two teams would be in a three-way tie with Bellows Falls for the final two spots.
Heading into the weekend, Brattleboro (7-6) will host Hartford today at 5:30 p.m. Every game left on Post 5's schedule is a must-win, as Rutland (13-1), Bellows Falls (12-4), Bennington (12-3) and Fair Haven (9-6) are ahead of them in the standings.
Brattleboro Post 5 got off to a quick start, then barely hung on as they eked out a 6-4 win over Chester Post 67 at Tenney Field last Tuesday.
Pitchers Adam Harrison and Sawyer Olson combined for the victory. Troy Scott went 2-for-3 and scored two runs to lead Brattleboro.
Brattleboro wasn't as fortunate last Thursday as the team lost to Bennington Post 13, 14-12, in a wild, extra-innings game at Tenney Field.
Bennington took a 9-0 lead, then Brattleboro rallied for three runs in the fifth and eight runs in the sixth to go up 11-9. Bennington then tied the game in the seventh and rallied in the eighth to win it.
Kyle Whitworth, Rob Meyer and Troy Scott all had two hits each to lead Brattleboro. Scott also drove in four runs.
After heavy rain Friday left Tenney Field unplayable, Post 5 took a ride to Dummerston to play Hartford Post 26, and came away with a 3-0 victory.
It was an interesting bit of home field advantage for Post 5 coach Claude Gouin, since he built the baseball diamond at the Dummerston School in the mid-1990s.
Post 37 on the bubble for playoffs
Bellows Falls entered last week being in control of its playoff destiny. After losing a doubleheader to Brattleboro on Saturday, the team might not qualify for the tournament.
Post 5 beat Bellows Falls 12-1 and 12-2 at Hadley Field in a pair of games cut short by the 10-run mercy rule. Brattleboro had 14 hits in the first game and kept on hitting in the second game. Post 5's Whitworth hit a two-run homer in the first game and winning pitcher Isaac Earle helped himself in the second game by driving in three runs in a 4-for-4 day at the plate.
Bellows Falls started the week with a 10-run mercy rule wins at Hadley Field. Post 37 clobbered Windsor, 12-2, in five innings last Tuesday. Billy Wheeler got the complete game victory, striking out four, walking five and giving up just one hit. Derek Osborne went 2-for-2 with four RBIs on the night, Brendan Hackett went 2-for-3 and Nick Gendron added a two-run homer.
Bellows Falls followed that up with a 14-4 win over Hartford Post 26 in five innings last Thursday. Trailing 4-3 in the fifth, Post 37 broke the game open by scoring 11 runs on seven hits and five walks to win it.
Post 37 prepped for their big doubleheader with Brattleboro with a 4-1 win over the Saxtons River Pirates on Friday.
Bellows Falls finished the regular season at 12-6, but their playoff fate now depends on what happens to Brattleboro and Fair Haven this week.
Coursen leads Vermont field hockey team at regional tourney
Vermont teams usually have a tough time when they go up against teams from the rest of New England, but Bellows Falls coach Bethany Coursen proved to be the exception to this rule as she led a team of 17 Vermont field hockey players to a second finish at the 2010 Super Soph tournament in Dennis/Yarmouth High School in Massachusetts on July 10 and 11.
Coursen's squad was the first Vermont team to make to the finals of the eight-team tournament, which features teams from Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island, plus three Massachusetts squads - one from private schools, one from public school and a Cape Cod team.
The Vermont team went winless in their first three games on July 10, but rallied the following day to beat New Hampshire and Connecticut to reach the finals against Cape Cod. While Vermont lost to the Cape team, 4-1, they can hold their heads high that they represented their state well.
Spaulding football player's injury case settled
It was one of the most horrific injuries ever seen at Natowich Field.
On Sept. 23, 2005, during a Friday-night high-school football game between Spaulding and Brattleboro, Derek Felix, a 16-year-old junior defensive back, took the field for the Crimson Tide for the first time.
It was late in the fourth quarter and Spaulding was losing 30-7 to the Colonels. Felix was sent in to play defensive back as Brattleboro tried for a two-point conversion.
Felix lowered his head as he attempted to tackle a Brattleboro running back. He made helmet-to-helmet contact with his opponent, and the collision broke Felix's neck.
He has been in a wheelchair ever since.
Felix, now a quadriplegic, recently achieved a bit of closure when reached a out-of-court settlement with the Barre Supervisory Union, which he sued for negligence in a civil case filed more than two years ago.
According to the Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus, the settlement includes a payment, but the terms of the settlement dictate that details of the legal agreement - including the dollar amount - remain confidential.
Felix, who now lives in Barre Town, contended that his coaches never taught him that putting your head down to tackle could lead to serious injury. He also claimed that he did not participate in 10 practices - as mandated by the Vermont Principals Association - before his coaches sent him into the game.
The tragedy, and the subsequent legal battle by Felix and his family, did have one positive effect. Bob Johnson, the VPA's associate executive director, told the Times-Argus that it has made athletic directors in Vermont more diligent about enforcing the 10-practice rule.
“I know the athletic directors throughout the state are very aware of this situation,” said Johnson.
What happened to Derek Felix could have happened to any high school football player. It's the goal of the coaches and volunteers to make sure their team members play safely and to prevent them from sustaining serious injuries.
As another season of high school football draws near, let's hope we don't see anything like what we saw under the lights of Natowich Field five years ago, when a young man's life was utterly and completely changed on one play.