As the Fourth of July passes and the weather heats up, so goes the Cal Ripken World Series path that is nearing its halfway point for many age groups. For the 9U and 11U age bracket, the tournaments have come to a close with Hudson finishing eighth in 9U States and fourth in 11U States with 9U going 0-3 in the tournament and missing the bracket portion of the tournament, and 11U going 3-1 and losing a tough battle against Londonderry in the semifinals 2-0. For the 8U age group, Hudson finished as the eighth seed in Pool Play and will play Great Bay in the first round of the bracket portion of the tournament. Hudson 10U did not make the State Tournament and Hudson was unable to field a 12U team.
For 11U, it was a perfect Pool Play run against Milford (6-1), Quintown (10-9), and Londonderry (12-6) that saw the 11U HitDawgs get a first-round bye after winning Pool B outright. After Londonderry upset Pool A’s second-seeded Hollis-Brookline, they earned themselves a rematch with Hudson on Sunday and defeated the HitDawgs 2-0 despite Hudson having multiple bases-loaded opportunities with nobody out and being unable to score a run. Quintown managed to upset Nashua in the semifinals to play against the host Londonderry and managed to beat the hosts winning the 11U State Tournament.
At the 9U level, Hudson was unable to make it out of the Pool Play portion of the bracket as they went 0-3, losing to Roger Allen (10-6), Quintown (13-0), and Swanzey (12-0) in their pool. Barrington, also 0-3, finished seventh thanks to two fewer runs allowed.
In the bracket portion of the tourney, Pool A’s second-seeded Swanzey took a beating to Pool B’s third-seeded Londonderry, beating them 14-4 in four innings on Friday evening and Pool B’s second-seeded Keene beat up on Pool A’s third-seeded Roger Allen 15-0 in three innings on Saturday setting up a semifinal slate of Swanzey vs Exeter and Keene vs Quintown.
In Sunday’s first semifinal game, Swanzey exploded for five runs in the third inning and then added two in the fourth, three in the fifth, and one more in the sixth to stun Exeter 11-2 and clinch a spot in the 9U State Championship Game.
The second semifinal game on Sunday might have been the single-best game of the tournament as Keene and Quintown battled for their spot in Monday’s State Championship. Quintown started Jacob Labell on the mound on Sunday against Porter Stromgren for Keene, and the pitchers battled the game out until Stromgren was pulled after two innings saw him reach the 40-pitch mark with Keene’s manager looking to make sure his pitchers were ready in the event of a championship game appearance. Clayton Nowak replaced Stromgren and was excellent in his two innings of work on 40 pitches as well. Quintown was able to put up two in the first off of Stromgren and one in the fourth off Nowak, but Keene kept themselves in the game scoring a run in the third and one in the fifth off Quintown starter Jacob Labell, who put on a gutsy performance, striking out 11 in five innings of work while only allowing the two runs, neither of which were earned, one hit, and walking four batters while keeping his pitch count at just 77, signaling the automatic end of his night as the 9U max is 75 given that the pitcher can finish the batter. Keene was able to pull within a run in the top of the sixth off reliever Trevor Homiak, but Homiak was able to slam the door on the Keene Fireballs, beating them 4-3 and advancing to the title game to play against Swanzey.
In the State Championship Game, it was Quintown that emerged victorious with a 7-4 win under the lights at Greeley Field. Quintown gave the ball to Jayce Senter to start things out against Everett Elliott for Swanzey. Both pitchers went the first three innings of the ballgame with Elliott allowing seven runs, four earned, on six hits while striking out four and walking one. Elliott also hit two batters in his outing while Senter allowed four runs, none earned, on one hit, striking out six and walking three. Swanzey held two leads in the ballgame, 1-0 and 4-1 before Quintown put up a crooked number and a six spot in the third with Mason Richardi driving home the go-ahead run with his single to right field where Quin Aiken made a costly error that allowed two runs to score. An error by shortstop Tallon MacPhail allowed Richardi to score just two pitches later.
Both bullpen arms, Mason Richardi for Quintown and Ethan Moreau for Swanzey, respectively, were excellent in relief of their starters with neither allowing a run, Richardi striking out six batters and walking just one while scattering two hits, and Moreau allowing just two hits as well, while striking out three and not walking a batter.
At the 8U level, the tournament has just reached its bracket portion as the 12 teams wrapped up Pool Play on Monday. Hudson finished 1-1 in pool play after beating Windham (9-7) and losing to Barrington (18-7), earning themselves the eighth seed in the bracket and drawing Great Bay (Epping), 0-2 in Pool B, in the first round of the tournament, with the winner playing on Friday at 3 pm against top-seeded Exeter in the quarterfinals.
