Mother Nature wiped out Monday’s schedule of games, meaning the local youth teams had to wait another day to try and crown baseball champions.
Here’s a closer look at this week’s championship series, which are scheduled to continue tonight.
Majors
Thanks to a dazzling Jason Quinn Sunday performance, Maniatty Real Estate is in the driver’s seat of the best-of-three championship series. The defending-champion Realtors hold a 1-0 series lead over New Fortune Restaurant, with Game 2 slated to be played tonight at 5:30 at Lunt No. 1.
Quinn struck out seven, pitching into the sixth inning in Maniatty’s 10-5 Game 1 victory. Dylan Fisher contributed offensively with a home run.
New Fortune will try and force a decisive third game, which would be played on Wednesday night at Lunt, if necessary. To do so, the squad will likely rely on the offensive prowess of Ian Simpson and Dylan Clemente, both of whom smacked Game 1 home runs.
AAA
Powerhouse Rotary Club looks to cap an outstanding season with a championship tonight in Game 2 of the AAA title series at Lunt No. 2.
It’s a rematch of last year’s AAA championship, where Rotary edged Aubuchon Hardware in three games to capture the 2016 crown. Rotary got its title defense off to a strong start over the weekend, as Jake Brook’s home run paced his team to a 14-5 Saturday win to stake Rotary to a 1-0 series lead.
Rotary’s Jackson Campbell tossed three innings in last year’s decisive Game 3 of the championship series and returns with solid big-game experience, while teammates Kendra Campbell and Daniel Pena-Chadee both contributed two key hits apiece in the Game 1 victory.
Don’t expect Aubuchon to go away quietly, however. Luca Siano and Brayden Thayer are both dangerous bats, and Siano enters red-hot after clubbing a Game 1 home run in defeat. A win tonight would force a winner-take-all Game 3, scheduled for Wednesday night at Lunt.
After four days off, the Newt Guilbault Community League championship series will take center stage in Turners Falls tonight.
Thanks to a Monday’s weather postponement, Game 1 of the best-of-three series will begin this evening, when Greenfield Savings Bank and the Montague Elks tangle for the title at Campbell Field.
GSB enters on the heels of a dramatic Game 3 win that propelled it into the championship. On the arm of all-everything performer Cayden Lehtomaki, the squad got past Turners Falls Athletic Club, 6-4, to join the Elks in the title series. Lehtomaki struck out 14 batters in four innings of no-hit ball, and also belted a homer.
The Elks swept their semifinal series against Pipione’s Sport Shop and come in well-rested to try and knock off Lehtomaki and GSB. To do so, the team will need big performances from its star hitters. Hugh Cyhowski (four hits, three RBI), Gavin Rubio (two hits, two RBI) and Joaquin Rubio (three hits, two RBI) all collected home runs in the team’s Game 2 win over Pipione’s, and they’ll need to bring similar performances once again tonight.
Regardless, the league will feature a new champion this season. In the 2016 final, St. Kazimierz Society swept Booska’s Flooring to cap an undefeated 19-0 campaign.
Three teams remain in the double-elimination Franklin County Babe Ruth postseason, which continues tonight with a consolation-bracket game between No. 2 Turners Falls Athletic Club and third-seeded Akey Insurance (5:30 p.m., Abercrombie Field).
The two teams met in the opening round Saturday, where TFAC captured a 5-1 win. Since then, Akey beat St. Kaz in the consolation bracket and TFAC lost to Hubie’s Tavern, putting both teams on the brink of elimination tonight. The winner advances to the championship, where Hubie’s is unbeaten and waiting for a showdown on Saturday at 4 p.m. Either TFAC or Akey would need to beat Hubie’s twice to snag the title.