Last Wednesday, the New England Charge 14U team finished their season, finishing second in the New Balance Select League’s NH/ME Division I Gold Bracket after making a run to the finals as the 8th seed in the tournament, losing to the second-seeded Grizzlies Baseball Showcase based out of Manchester, NH.
The two teams traveled to Lawrence, MA on Wednesday morning for an early-morning 9 a.m., first pitch between the two teams, and the Charge jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning after PJ Millette tripled home Jasper Workman, who had reached on an error, and Cole Baker promptly singled him home on the next pitch to make it 2-0 Charge before starting pitcher Cam St. Clair set foot on the mound for NEC.
Unfortunately for the Charge, the Grizzlies were not fazed by the two-run first inning as they responded with two runs of their own, coming off a Liam-Carter Patten two-run inside-the-park homerun with two outs in the bottom half of the first after an error committed by the usually sure-handed Jasper Workman at third.
NEC was then shut down in the top of the second inning without much issue before the Grizzlies added a run on an RBI infield single for Jakobi Little that gave the Grizzlies a 3-2 lead that they never turned back from.
The Grizzlies tacked on another run in the third inning and then five in the fourth to make it 9-2 heading into the fifth after they had long since chased the NEC starter Cam St. Clair prior to the end of the third inning.
New England managed to get a runner into scoring position on two separate occasions in their half of the fifth, desperately needing a run to keep some of the pressure off their bullpen to avoid the mercy rule, but unfortunately, Brogan Matte being throw out trying to take third cost the Charge as they stranded runners on first and second in the inning.
The Grizzlies managed to put the Charge away in the bottom of the fifth after Asher Merrill walked, Connor Loughlin singled, and Merrill put the finishing touches on the mercy rule on his steal of home to win the ballgame and the NH/ME Championship for Grizzlies Baseball Showcase.
While the season didn’t end the way they wanted it to, they did manage to take down the number one seeded Next Pitch Black Bears Blue in the first round of the Gold Bracket Tournament, and then followed that win up with a semifinals victory over the fifth-seeded Western Maine Mountaineers in the second round on Tuesday afternoon, the cause for Hudson’s Legion Prep game being postponed. The Charge finished their season at 17-16-1 overall, good for a .515 winning percentage, and ultimately, the silver medal in the NH/ME D1 Gold Bracket.