PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Olivia Archambault threw three hitless innings Saturday to lead the Berkshire Force 12Us to a 13-3 victory in a must-win game at the Babe Ruth Softball New England Regional.
The win, Berkshire’s second of the day, keeps the Force alive for another shot at the Stamford, Connecticut, stars at 10 a.m. Sunday at the Doyle Complex on Benedict Road.
Archambault, Lilly Pudelko and Tori Blanchard each had two hits in Saturday’s elimination game against Windham, NH, which the Force ended due to the run rule in the bottom of the fourth inning.
“We had to play a third game today,” Force coach Mike Lodowski said. “They came back and told the guys to come out here, rest up and come back tomorrow and fight hard.”
“We’re playing against a strong team tomorrow. We have to get through it. But all of our players played brilliantly.”
The Force began the knockout rounds on Saturday morning with a 12-4 win over the Windham Wildcats.
Kaylana Altman went 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBIs, and Archambault tripled twice and scored two runs in the win.
Archambault also took the win in the circle by throwing six innings and making nine strikeouts.
This set up a return match against Stamford, which beat Berkshire in its tournament opener on Friday morning.
In the rematch, the Force scored three runs in the fourth inning and took a 3-2 lead over the top-ranked Stars.
Altman started the rally with a bunt single and got to third base on Addy Farkas’ single to center field. Archambault’s line drive to right field allowed Altman to catch up and put Berkshire on the scoreboard.
Cassidy Flynn then hit a single to put runners on the corners. She advanced on a passed ball before Gianna Moses hit a double to center to score two runs and make it 3-2 Force.
Berkshire scored two more runs in the sixth inning with RBIs from Archambault and Flynn to make it 5-2.
But by his final at-bat, Stamford rallied with four runs in the bottom half of the inning and closed the game with Maddie McGrath’s two-run triple to right field.
“We had them,” Lodowski said. “Three runs in the last inning. They threw the ball to us. (Flynn) pitched well. And they caught two of them and beat us by one at the end.”
“It was hard.”
Flynn recorded six strikeouts and allowed five earned runs in the loss.
That meant the Force had to beat the Windham Wildcats for the third time in three days to stay in the race and have a chance at competing against Alabama and the Babe Ruth World Series.
The home team wasted no time and took control.
After Archambault took the team out of the game after three groundball outs in the first inning despite an error on one out, the Force scored eight times in the bottom half of the inning.
Archambault and Flynn each scored a run with singles. Five of Berkshire’s runs came on throws that reached the backstop while a persistent rain affected Windham’s battery.
Archambault struck out six of the next seven batters and managed three innings before reaching her innings limit for the day. Daisy Caron walked to the circle to end the game and struck out a player.
Meanwhile, Berkshire’s offense increased the lead to 10-0 with two runs in the second. Pudelko had an RBI single in the rally.
Then, up 10-3 in the bottom of the sixth, the Force got consecutive singles from Pudelko, Blanchard and Caron to increase the lead to nine. Caron then scored the game’s final run on a wild pitch.
On Sunday morning, the Force will once again face a Stamford team that has a 20-4 record since early May in the final round of the double-elimination tournament. If Berkshire wins the first game, it will be a make-or-break finale for the regional crown.
