BERLIN- The Berlin Little League 9-10 team last week captured the state championship and is now preparing for a potential run in the mid-Atlantic regional tournament.
While the Berlin Little League intermediate team is vying for it eastern regional championship, the 9-10 team has been practicing all week in anticipation of its own regional tournament. The 9-10 team won the Maryland state championship last week, beating Valley, 9-4, to take the title. The 9-10 scored six runs in the first inning and never looked back on its way to the state championship.
Cole Lynch got Berlin on the board early in the first inning with a steal of home. After an error, a walk by Ryan McLaughlin and an RBI single by Kellen Catrino, Berlin scored six times in the first and led 6-1 after one inning and kept adding insurance runs to hold off Valley and capture the state championship.
Berlin led 6-2 in the bottom of the third and 7-4 in the bottom of the fifth. Valley threatened to make it a close game, but Berlin added two more runs to pull away for the 9-4 win. Eric Berry reached base all four times, Catrino went 2-3 with an RBI, Brenner Gursky went 2-4 and Logan Tapman and Calvin Lorance each drove in runs. Evan Truitt pitched four innings and gave up four runs, only one of which was earned, and struck out eight. Gursky pitched two innings, allowing just one hit and no runs while striking out five.
With the win, the 9-10 team captured the state championship and advanced to the mid-Atlantic regional tournament. Because Berlin clinched its state title in short order, it will have nearly two weeks off before the regional tournament in Rhode Island next week. In the interim, Berlin has been practicing almost daily in advance of the eastern regional tournament and is in the process of raising funds to offset the cost of the trip to Rhode Island.
While Berlin’s intermediate team can ultimately reach the national championship in California, there is a ceiling for the 9-10 team. If the 9-10 team wins the mid-Atlantic tournament, it will face the winner in the New England regional tournament for the de facto eastern regional championship.
While the core group of the 9-10 team will remain together in future years, there will likely be some split next year as the 10-year-olds move up and the nine-year-olds remain at the same level. Like the Intermediate team, which has now won four straight district titles and four straight state championships, the core group will reunite in future age brackets, continuing the run of success for the Berlin Little League program and its impact on the Stephen Decatur program. Most of the players on the current Seahawk team played together at different levels in the Berlin Little League.
The 9-10 team is currently raising money to offset the cost of the trip to Rhode Island for the regional tournament. Sister’s in Berlin is donating a portion of its proceeds on Saturday night to the cause. In addition, donations can be made on line at the Berlin Little League website, or by mailing a check care of the 9-10 team to P.O. Box 514, Berlin, Md. 21811.