The record will show that the Brattleboro 15-year-old Babe Ruth all-star team went 0-3 at the 2015 New England Regionals.
What it will not show is how hard the three-time Vermont state champions competed against some very tough teams from across the region.
Vermont gave Cranston, R.I., all it could handle in the first game behind the pitching of ace right-hander Leif Bigelow in a 3-0 setback on July 24 that could have easily gone the other way. Brattleboro then battled Augusta, Maine, for 14 thrilling innings on July 25 before the Maine state champions won it, 7-6.
With nothing left in the tank, Vermont was faced with the task of playing undefeated Pittsfield, Mass., on Sunday and the tournament's prohibitive favorite rolled to an 11-0 victory.
With just 38 players in the entire Brattleboro Babe Ruth League - with just 15 of those being 15-year-olds - just getting this far and playing as well as they did is a huge accomplishment.
“These guys are good baseball players, but they're better kids,” said Brattleboro manager Andrew Cavanagh, who handled himself with class all weekend. “It's kind of the end of an era. We've spent six years together, so that's almost half their lives I've spent with these guys. I love'em. They have fun playing baseball. They did well down here and they can go home with smiles on their faces.”
Bigelow definitely made a name for himself during his two appearances. Bigelow had everyone impressed, including a couple of college scouts from Connecticut. With a nice fastball and a solid array of off-speed pitches, Bigelow allowed just seven hits and one earned run with seven strikeouts and no walks in 8.1 innings.
“We've known for the past three years being state champions that this is a great opportunity to get some exposure,” Cavanagh said. “Up around here there are small towns and guys can get overlooked. A couple of guys came up to me and gave me their information, so you gotta be happy with that.”
Game 1: Cranston 3, Brattleboro 0
With a couple of timely bounces and a few more untimely mistakes, the all-stars from Brattleboro might have been celebrating a close victory over the Rhode Island state champions in the first game of the tournament.
Instead, it was Cranston that was able to come away with a tight victory despite a solid pitching performance by Bigelow, who scattered five hits during a gritty 114-pitch complete-game effort. Bigelow struck out six and walked none, allowing just one earned run.
“We have two guys with varsity experience at the high school level,” Cavanagh said. “But he's definitely our go-to guy. He showed it today.”
Quite simply, whatever could have gone wrong for Brattleboro, did. The Vermont state champions made four errors, leading to two unearned runs. They had two men thrown out by Cranston catcher Nick Poulos while attempting to steal second. Most damaging, of the nine strikeouts collected by Cranston pitchers Steve Rocchio and hard-throwing reliever Cam Harris, six of them came on called third strikes.
All of that didn't help with Brattleboro collecting just two hits on singles by Chris Hall and John Peloso in the fifth and sixth innings, respectively.
“The timing couldn't have been worse today, and timing is everything in baseball,” Cavanagh said. “We had timely errors and not much timely hitting. We had runners on, guys on first and second a couple of innings. We battled, and continued to battle despite a few errors. We only gave up one earned run, and that's where we expected to be. We just didn't expect to be where we were offensively.”
Cranston scored one run in the first on an RBI-single by Mike Doire then took advantage of an infield error to take a 2-0 lead with one more in the third.
Cranston turned a double play to avoid damage in the third and Brattleboro put runners on first and second with no outs in the fourth on a walk by Bigelow and an infield error that allowed Peloso to reach base. But Rocchio struck out the next two batters, both on called third strikes, then got out of the jam on an infield groundout.
“We had too many backwards Ks,” Cavanagh said. “We didn't like the bunting situation because of who was at bat, and that hurt. We went from first-and-second with no outs to first-and-second with two outs just like that. And that was a tough one to swallow.”
Game 2: Augusta 7, Brattleboro 6 (14 innings)
Brattleboro might not have won this thrilling extra-inning affair, falling to 0-2 on the tournament. But the Vermont state champions definitely proved they belong.
Maine (1-1) looked like it was headed for an easy victory leading 6-1 going into the top of the seventh. But Vermont stunned Augusta with five runs to tie the game, getting a two-run single by Tony Martinez for the equalizer.
Brattleboro held Maine off over the next seven innings, limiting Augusta to three hits over that span behind the spectacular relief pitching of Ian Fulton-Black. But Vermont just couldn't push the winning run across. Maine finally broke through, scoring the walk-off run with no outs in the bottom of the 14th on a game-winning single by Noah Bonsant off Brattleboro's third pitcher of the day, John Peloso, who caught the first 13 innings.
After failing to get a baserunner past second during its 3-0 loss to Rhode Island, this was a big step forward.
“We didn't get the win but I think we got better today,” Cavanagh said. “We're better people than we were before this game. We battled. We hung in there. But it still leaves a sour taste in your mouth.”
There were many heroes. Peloso had two hits and one RBI, including a run-scoring single in the fourth to make it 4-1. Maine scored four runs in the top of the first. Vermont received some huge efforts off the bench, getting key pinch-hits by Jack Trudeau and Korie Cliché. Ben Nelson-Betz started on the mound and held Maine in check for four innings after allowing four in the first.
But this day belonged to Fulton-Black, who allowed just four hits and no runs over 6.2 innings after relieving Nelson-Betz in the sixth. Fulton-Black came on with one out and the bases loaded, gave up a single, but struck out the next two batters to end the inning, stranding three runners on base.
Fulton-Black also went 3-for-6 with one RBI and one run scored.
“He's primarily a basketball player. He hasn't had the time on the field this year like he has in the past,” Cavanagh said. “But he's a gamer. He's an athlete and a competitor, and he showed it today.”
Vermont stuck to its aggressive game-plan it employed against Cranston, and this time it paid off. Brattleboro stole four bases during its five-run rally, taking full advantage of two errors to lead off the innings.
“We didn't want to change the way we play,” Cavanagh said. “We wanted to play our game whether we won or lost.”
Vermont had the bases loaded with one out in the seventh after it tied the game, but Maine turned a 1-2-3 double play to end the threat. Vermont had plenty of chances in extra innings, but left 13 men on base over the final seven frames.
“I'll take any one of my guys with the game on the line,” Cavanagh said. “We needed just one to sneak through and this would be a different conversation.”
Game 3: Pittsfield 11, Brattleboro 0
Pittsfield was not the team Brattleboro wanted to be facing after its 14-inning marathon. With a depleted pitching staff and tired legs, Vermont had its back to the wall. Pittsfield, which advanced into the semifinal round after a 3-0 showing in pool play, scored six runs over the first two innings and never looked back.
Three Pittsfield pitchers combined on a one-hitter with Ben Nelson-Betz collecting the only single with one out in the fifth.
Tanner Bell pitched the first 3.1 innings, Bigelow gave Brattleboro a gritty 1.1 innings of work while Bridger Grout and Tommy Carroll threw the final two frames. Fulton-Black was supposed to start, but threw almost a full game in relief against Maine.
“We knew we were depleted,” Cavanagh said. “When they left this field yesterday, we were sunburned and out of gas and out of pitching. We had to play an extra game. We had three pool play games, but it was really four as long as that lasted. We knew that was going to put us in a tough spot today. Pitching wins tournaments like this, and that showed today.”