Little League
All-Stars Named
By Jill D. Montgomery

The 11 and 12-year old baseball All-Star tournament, held in Randolph this year opened with a controversy, when Rutland found themselves one out short of getting all their players requirements in. The Rutland coach had his pitcher walk in two runs to tie the game 3-3 and send the contest into extra innings, allowing his final player to receive his at bat requirement. A final run by Rutland had them pulling ahead of Randolph by one, 4-3 in the seventh, for what seemed to be the win.

A call or two from Little League Headquarters in Bristol, Conn., however, ruled that the actions were "A travesty of the game, and that Randolph was the winner by 6-0 by forfeit." The Rutland coach was also suspended for two games. A similar incident happened in the Regionals last year to a different team, with the same outcome.

Randolph’s real run of the game came in the fifth inning when Mead Binhammer led off with a single to right field, stole second and came in to score off of Ross Caswell’s two-bagger. Jacob Sprague and Caleb Chase had the only other hits of the evening for Randolph. Harry Dwinell had a great diving catch in the first inning in left field.

Randolph’s Cody Thurston pitched the first five innings with six strike-outs and Mead Binhammer pitched the last two innings with three K’s.

Rutland’s pitchers were Erik Godzik and Ryan Bellomo. The lone Rutland hit came from Kyle Arnold.

Mid-Vt./C.V. South

The second game on Saturday was between Mid-Vt. And Connecticut Valley south with C.V. south winning, 16-6 in five innings by the 10-run rule.

Mid-Vt. opened the game with a run when Michael Smith hit a single and then took advantage of errors to score.

C.V. South answered with a big first inning scoring seven. Base hits came for Daniel Gorman and Sam Mellert.

Mid-Vt. cut the gap to one, 7-6, with a strong second inning. Nick Sprague hit a double as did Daniel Scherding and Brody McClure. Clay Walker hit a single.

Connecticut Valley South added three runs in the bottom of the inning, four in the third inning and one in each of the fourth and fifth innings while holding Mid-Vt. scoreless. Carl Keating had two doubles and Daniel Gorman hit two more singles.

Sam Cole had a double for Mid-Vt. In the fifth inning but got stranded as did Zack Cole in the third. Mid-Vt. faces Rutland Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.

Randolph Win

Randolph came back and played Central Vt. Monday night and the game got done just as the rain started, after a 20-minute delay for lightning at the end of the game. Randolph won the contest, 13-3.

It was a good game with some outstanding defense played by both teams for most of the evening. Outfielders had some outstanding catches, there were good throws made in the infield and several runners got picked off trying to steal.

Randolph scored two runs to start the game with base hits from Cody Thurston, Ross Caswell and Jacob Sprague. Central Vt. answered with three runs of their own with Kit Gage and Darren Cilley leading off with singles, followed by a double by Cole Harrington and topped off with a home-run by Thomas Ingham.

Randolph retook the lead in the top of the second with another four runs with doubles from Mackenzie Poirier and Caleb Chase and a single from Bryan Eaccarino.

Randolph added one run in the fourth when Ben Jickling singled and then came on to score. In the final two innings of the game Randolph added six runs, three in each of the fifth and sixth. Thurston and Zack LaPerle both hit doubles. Randolph pitchers were Ben Jickling and Aaron West.

Randolph plays at 2 p.m. on the Fourth of July versus Connecticut Valley South.

Central Vt. had bases loaded in the fifth and a man on third in the sixth but couldn’t score either time. Thomas Ingham, Derek Swanson and Trenton Morrison all singled in the fifth.

Central Vt. plays on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

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