Sports
North Andover's Late Rally Falls Short In Cranston
After falling behind as far as 12-1, the 9 and 10-year old North Andover Little League team put together a rally to cut the margin to three but Essex, Vt. Little League proved to be too much.
CRANSTON, R.I. -- The North Andover 9 and 10-year old Little League team decided to use a never-say-die mentality in its 13-10 loss against Essex, Vt. last night in the East Region Invitational in Cranston, R.I.
For a little while it seemed like it would have truly worked, but a six-run sixth inning wasn’t enough against an Essex team that at one point held a 12-1 advantage.
Jake McElroy, Joe Quinlan and Joe Phinney each had RBI hits in the sixth and Joe Valentino drove in two runs with a double, but Essex managed to hold on and prevent a meltdown.
Find out what's happening in North Andoverfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“Winning the game was our main focus today,” North Andover manager Mike Valentino said. “Actually, in all four games we were up. We made mental mistakes, we made physical mistakes which is expected for 10-year old kids.”
North Andover held a 1-0 lead after the first inning when Quinlan singled home McElroy, but Essex quickly took control in the ensuing three innings.
Find out what's happening in North Andoverfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Essex answered in the second with four runs, including RBI singles by Sam Gibbs and Grady Cram. Vermont’s most productive inning came in the third when it scored five runs and sent ten batters to the plate. Nico Hall knocked in two with an RBI double and Cram hit another RBI single. In addition, Essex pushed two across home via North Andover errors.
“I’ve seen teams here that are good and some teams that aren’t so good,” Valentino said. “But the bottom line is that you have to play and we didn’t play well.”
Vermont received a strong pitching performance from starter Maverick King, who threw four innings and allowed four runs on two hits and struck out four.
North Anover was led at the plate by Quinlan (3-for-4) and Valentino (2-for-3). Essex was led by Cram (3-for-4) and Edgar Koval (3-for-4, 2 RBIs).
Essex finally got a game that favored its way -- in its first two games Vermont lost on walk-off hits. Essex moves to 1-2 in New England division play with its next game today against New Hampshire at 2:00 p.m. North Andover finishes the tournament at 0-4.
A brief ceremony was held immediately after the game to commemorate the state championship run by North Andover. The team is mathematically eliminated from the tournament which concludes on Saturday.
