PITTSFIELD, Mass. – The Berkshire Force 12-and-under travel softball team Friday morning rallied with five runs in the top of the sixth but could not catch the Stamford, Conn., Stars in the opening game of the Babe Ruth New England Regional at the Doyle Complex.

 

Daisy Caron went 1-for-1 with a pair of RBIs, and Cassidy Flynn struck out eight for the Force in a 7-5 loss to open the first round of the three-team 12U division.

 

Berkshire is set to take on the third team in the age group, the Windham, N.H., Wildcats, at 5 p.m. on Friday before heading to the double-elimination bracket phase on Saturday morning.

 

In the opener, the Force left eight runners on base over the first four innings before finally starting to cash in their scoring opportunities late.

 

“It was a hard fought game,” Force coach Mike Lodowski said. “We had some errors in the beginning. Everybody was nervous coming into it. It’s a big tournament. If we win, we go to Alabama [for the World Series], so the girls were a little bit nervous coming into it.

 

“It’s a good team we played. We’re going to see them again. We saw the errors we made, we know what we need to fix. We’ll straighten stuff out, and we’ll be in the next game.”

 

The Force had a big opportunity to take the lead early when Flynn’s single in between a pair of walks gave the designated visitors bases loaded with one out in the top of the first.

 

But Stamford pitcher Sophia Evanko struck out the next two hitters to end the threat.

 

And her offense gave her an unearned run against Flynn in the bottom of the inning. An error put the leadoff runner on, and she eventually scored on a pitch that got to the backstop to make it 1-0.

 

Stamford doubled its lead one inning later, this time cashing in on a Maddie McGrath triple with one out and another pitch in the dirt.

 

A pair of Force errors in the third led to two more runs to double the lead again to 4-0.

 

Lodowski was happy with how Flynn pitched through some early jams.

 

“Cassidy really comes through with her pitching,” Lodowski said. “She’s only 12 years old, and she’s the Lenox [varsity] pitcher, and she had a perfect game for them. She goes all the way to Albany, and so does our other pitcher [Liv Archembault], and they take lessons over there with the [University at Albany] coach.

 

“[Flynn] has a drop ball. She’s got a really nasty curve, breaking ball. She’s got a fastball – inside, outside, a two-seam, a four-seam fastball. A curve ball we’re trying to throw in on some of these bunts. Our coach, Coach Flynn, calls the pitches in, and he’s jamming them up with curveballs on their bunts. Her curve was really breaking well. It was coming on their hands, and they weren’t able to bunt.”

 

Flynn pitched around a leadoff single and left a runner at third in the bottom of the fourth, but Stamford scored three runs on two hits one inning later to open up a 7-0 lead.

 

Going to its last at-bat down by seven, the Force fought back.

 

After Addy Farkas and Archembault drew back-to-back walks, Flynn delivered an RBI groundout to get the Force on the scoreboard.

 

Gianna Moses’ one-out RBI single made it a 7-2 game, and Lexi Witherell drew a walk to keep the rally alive.

 

Stamford opted to change pitchers, and Lilly Pudelko greeted the reliever with a sacrifice fly to make it 7-3.

 

Tori Blanchard singled to put runners at the corners and took second base on defensive indifference ahead of Caron, who singled to right to drive in a pair and get the tying run to the plate.

 

But Stamford’s Kate Detmer got the ground ball to the right side she needed to leave Caron on base and end the game.

 

Lodowski said that the Force made some adjustments late against Evanko, who allowed just two hits going to the sixth inning.

 

“We really went over the strike zones,” he said. “From the name to the knees is what we tell them, and we had some girls golfing at balls, going over their head.

 

“We started stealing more. … And we pushed the game a little bit harder at the end.”

 

Photos from this game to come.