BRISTOL, Conn. — Despite getting off to a fast start on Thursday afternoon, the Peabody West Little League team couldn’t quite hold on and fell to Manchester Little League’s Team Connecticut by a score of 7-4 in a World Series New England Regional semifinal game at A. Bartlett Giamatti Little League Leadership Training Center.
Despite the loss, Peabody West — also known as Team Massachusetts — is still alive in its quest for a berth in the Little League World Series.
“We couldn’t have gotten off to a better start, and I said to myself, ‘man, this is just what the doctor ordered,'” said Peabody West manager Mark Bettencourt. “We thought we’d be able to get their pitcher off balance early, but the opposite happened and he really got into a groove the rest of the way.”
Jimmy DiCarlo had a great day at the plate in the loss for Peabody West, going 2-for-3 with a triple and an RBI. Brendan Kobierski went 1-for-2 with an RBI, while Cullen Pasterick went 0-for-2 with an RBI.
DiCarlo also got the start on the mound, pitching the first 3 2/3 innings before Mark Bettencourt Jr. came in to pitch the final 2 1/3 innings.
Peabody West looked like it was just going to continue its winning ways in the early innings, starting in the bottom of the first. DiCarlo led off with a walk and moved to second on a passed ball, then a Connecticut error moved him to third. Next up was Pasterick, who launched an RBI sacrifice fly to put Peabody West ahead 1-0.
But things weren’t over there. Two batters later, Kobierski laced an RBI single. He was able to move around the bases on two passed balls before finally scoring on a wild pitch to make it a 3-0 game.
The score remained there until the top of the third, when Jacob Budarz knocked a one-out triple to get Connecticut into scoring position. Eli Bucko followed it up with an RBI single, then two batters later Griffin Czarnota hit an RBI single of his own to make it 3-2.
The next inning, Budarz did it again when he launched a deep two-run home run to give Connecticut its first lead of the game at 4-3.
Connecticut stretched out its lead even more in the top of the fifth, when Budarz and Paul Virdokian each hit an RBI single and Ryan Gorman knocked an RBI double to make it a 7-3 game.
Peabody West continued to fight and got one run back in the bottom of the sixth on DiCarlo’s RBI triple, but it was too little, too late. After one final groundout, Connecticut punched its ticket to Williamsport.
Peabody West will have one more chance to qualify for the Little League World Series, as Team Massachusetts will need a win over North Manchester-Hooksett Little League’s Team New Hampshire Friday afternoon (1). The game will be broadcast on ESPN.
“Tomorrow’s the big enchilada, and we know that,” said Bettencourt. “It’s not like if we win tomorrow we won’t try to win (the final) on Saturday, but tomorrow is the game we need to win. We know that New Hampshire is going to have their ace out there and he’s a hard thrower, so we’re going to need to come with our best. We’ve been in this position before, so we just need to go out there and play our game.”
