T4 = TEAM MARKOWITZ

Following that win, we were scheduled to play Londonderry in the winners bracket, but due to scheduling conflicts with the state tournament, we had to forfeit the game. This ensured our players were rested and ready to play this weekend.

The Litchfield U11 All Stars started their state tournament this past weekend. The first round game Saturday was against the West Area number 3 seed Milford. The Boys came out ready to play, no errors in the first 3 innings followed by good at bats. We led 2-0, 3-0, 6-0, 6-2, 9-2 going into the last inning with a 7 run lead, we felt pretty comfortable. But remembering that we are playing in the state tournament and every team is good almost got the best of us. After 3 errors in the last inning, they crept close 9-6 but we were able to put them away in the end. Our first state game and a win, great job, what a way to start out the tournament. This set up our next game against the West Area Champions Keene.

On Sunday, we faced Keene, with arguably the two best pitchers we have faced all year (very very good speed and curve balls to boot), the entire team came ready and focused. I was amazed at how well we hit the ball. No one was intimidated and everyone had great at bats. We jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first. We then followed in the second with three more runs to take a 4-1 lead. The next inning we batted around the line up and put another 5 runs on the board to take a 9-1 lead. Our pitchers and defense played tremendously, keeping a well hitting team off balance and not providing any opportunities to score. The final was 10-1 and Litchfield qualified for the Regional Tournament!!!

We still have a couple more games to go in states and hope to win the championship, but regardless of the outcome, we should all be proud of how well these kids played, and how well they are representing Litchfield.

Exeter is very good hitting team, and the U11 Litchfield luck ran out. Exeter was able to walk off with a game winning HR in the bottom of the 6th inning to win the Championship.

The U11 Litchfield team fought well and more importantly, realized they could have easily won the game.

The U11 Litchfields will start the Cal Ripken State Tournament as the #2 seed out of the East. A great accomplishment for this group of kids. The team plays competitively against much larger towns/areas. The LBA and town should be proud.

As a warm up for the state tournament, not that 11 games in the last two weeks is not enough. The U11 Litchfield next tournament is the Souhegan Valley Invitational (SVI).

Good luck boys!

Last Saturday, U11 Litchfield started off with a win against a very good U11 Dover All-Star team. A great start and an all around good effort.

Last Sunday, U11 Litchfield had one bad inning that cost us 5 runs all after striking out the first two batters of the inning, and eventually lost to U11 Seacoast All-Stars.

The loss against Seacoast put Litchfield U11 in the losers bracket, which can be very tough to stay in the tournament. Litchfield U11 began the second part of the Area Tournament with a game against the same awesome group of U11 kids from Londonderry that played against Litchfield U11 in the championship game the previous week. Litchfield U11 came out on top once more. This then put us in a re-match against U11 Dover, a welcomed re-match. Following some great pitching and another great team effort U11 Litchfield again came out on the winning side.

Last night, U11 Litchfield had another re-match game, against Seacoast this time, who had made their way through the winners bracket and finally lost a tough one of their own in extra innings the night before. U11 Litchfield pitched 5 different players and played a very good defense game winning by 1 run again to place ourselves into the championship game tonight versus Exeter.

Because U11 Litchfield are in the losers bracket, if Litchfield achieves one more win, the team will play Seacoast again on Friday.

A great group of kids showing night in and night out, that they do not give up. Being down a few runs does not seem to phase them, and kids are taking advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. Again a great team effort, lets cheer them on and see if we can capture a championship.

The game was played on the perfect summer day evening (partly cloudy and cool temps). Both teams put great pitchers on the mound. For U12 Litchfield, Grant Levasseur was on top of his game striking out 8 batters and pitched all six innings. The duel between opposing pitchers was intense for three innings, where each pitcher shut down opposing batters and both teams defense executed nearly flawlessly.

It was the 4th inning when runners began to cross home plate.  With U12 Litchfield runners on second and third bases, Litchfield achieved a solid hit into the outfield that scored two runs and attain a 2-0 lead. U12 Monadnock scored their only run that began with a fluke dropped third-strike, and making the most of opportunities to advance to the next base. With the U12 Litchfield excellent pitching and defense (infield and outfield) in full gear the rest of the 5th inning, U12 Monadnock didn't have another opportunity to score.

U12 Litchfield showed their stamina in the 6th inning and continued their high level of defensive play making, and not allowing any opportunity for U12 Monadnock to score  a run.

The U12 Litchfield team played extremely well....CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

U12 Litchfield's second and thrid game of the SVI tournament is Saturday morning (10AM) and afternoon (4PM)

Litchfield 8 - 4 Kearsarge

Next U12 game is Thursday,  July 14 in the Souhegan Valley Tournament