BRISTOL—The Guilford Little League Softball 12-year-old All-Stars rolled to their second straight win at the New England Regional Tournament with a 13-2 victory over Canton (Mass). on Monday afternoon.
Guilford blew open a tight game with an eight-run fourth inning that kicked in the mercy rule.
Guilford advances to the winner’s bracket final on Wednesday at 7 p.m. It will face the winner of Monday night’s Bonny Eagle (Maine)-Champlain (VT) winner.
The winner of that game will advance to the New England championship game.
Guilford jumped on top with a crooked number (3 runs!) in the top of the first to take control of the game.
With one out, Maeve Eagleson walked and scored when Leah Michalowski laced a triple to left field. Kali Reinhold followed that up with an RBI single to make it a 2-0 game.
Reinhold would steal second and advance to third on a ground out. She would score on Addy Pradith’s RBI single to center field, giving Guilford the 3-0 edge.
In the top of the third, Guilford added two more runs.
Eagleson, who would walk thrice in the game, recoreded her second free pass to open the inning.
With one out, Reinhold tripled to right field on a full count, plating Eagleson to make it a 4-0 game.
Reagan Klein then singled, plating Reinhold for a 5-0 lead.
Canton did score two runs against Eagleson in the home half of the inning, but in the top of the fourth inning Guilford blew the game open.
Maeve McGowan led off the inning with a walk. She would steal second and advance to third on a wild pitch before scoring on Blake Bizzario’s single.
Abby Volpe and Olivia Mahon drew back-to-back walks to load the bases. Eagleson walked for the third time, this time plating a run to make a 7-2 game.
A Canton error allowed two mores to score as Guilford pushed its lead to 9-2.
Klein then added another RBI single to make it a 10-2 game. Leah Michalowski, who had reached on the error, would later score on a wild pitch with Reinhold and Klein both scoring on an error to push the lead to 13-2.
In the bottom half of the first, Michalowski came on in relief of Eagleson and struck out the side to end the game.
Reinhold and Klein both had two hits for Guilford, who also drew nine walks in the four inning game. In addition to Eagleson’s three free passes, six other Guilford batters drew walks.
Love Stories Like This?
Get Connecticut’s best softball features, breaking news, recruiting updates and exclusive interviews delivered to your inbox every Friday morning. Subscribe to the CT Softball Blog Weekly.
Leave a Reply