By John Orrell, Contributing Writer
Millbury – Two quality teams faced off at Millbury’s Thomas Moorey Field July 16 with the Little League District 5 All-Star title for age group 11-12 on the line.
Westborough had engineered electrifying come-from-behind wins in its path to the finals while Northborough had dispatched tough competitors Millbury, Auburn, Leicester and Grafton to earn its berth in the championship matchup.
But on this night, it was Northborough swinging the bats with muscle pounding out thirteen hits en route to a 14-0 four-inning mercy rule-shortened victory. The win marked the first-ever District 5 All-Star championship for the town of Northborough that was capped by a wild post-game celebration frenzy amongst players, coaches and a sizable legion of team supporters.
Northborough moves on to Sectional play beginning on July 20 in a round-robin playoff format that will culminate with a State Little League District championship in Lynn during the week of July 27. Locations, dates and times of all games are to be announced and will be posted on the Community Advocate website as soon as they are known.
“This is just so special,” said Northborough manager Jeff Fontecchio. “I’ve been with these kids since they were nine and to see them develop like this is amazing. They’re just playing so well right now. These kids know each other so well and know how to play together. The camaraderie amongst these kids is amazing. I keep telling them one-day-at-a time and they responded.”
Northborough would score all the runs they would need in the first inning when shortstop Quinn Potter laced a double to right-center and scampered home on pitcher Gavin Price’s RBI single. Price would later score on a Levi Carter-Frem two-base hit.
Tom Geoffrion would lead off the second and score on another Potter double, but it was the third inning when things unraveled for Westborough. Six runs would cross the plate on just a pair of hits as Northborough launched out to a 9-0 advantage. Carter-Frem opened the fourth inning with a towering homerun to center and was followed with hits by Geoffrion, Colin Wing, Potter, Price and Johnny Fontecchio leading to three more runs.
“I felt really psyched tonight,” said Price, who went all four innings allowing just three hits while striking out nine Westborough batters. “We just decided to get out there in the championship game and do our best. This feels really good. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. I’m really excited.”
“This was really great,” added Potter who banged out base hits in all four innings to lead the team offensively. “I wanted to help my team win. This is really cool because no one has even done this before in our town.”
As tough a loss as this was for Westborough, coaches and team supporters were solidly behind the team with cheers and encouragement for a playoff run well-done.
“I’m proud of every single one of these kids,” said Westborough manager Tim Keddy. “No one thought we would make it this far and we proved a lot of people wrong. Our town was really behind us. It was a great summer.
“Northborough is a very, very good team. They have great sportsmanship and their coaches are awesome guys. Their pitcher did a great job tonight. They’re just a very solid team. I don’t think they’re 14 runs better than us but they were better than us tonight.”
The 2015 District 5 All-Star champions are Northborough’s Quinn Potter, Colin Wing, Josh Champion, Johnny Fontecchio, Gavin Price, Zach Marchese, Brendan McCarthy, Brendan Morris, Ryan Kiley, Tom Geoffrion, Sam Robert, Brady Hodge and Levi Carter-Frem. The team is managed by Jeff Fontecchio who is assisted by Jim Wing and Craig Robert.
The 2015 District 5 All-Star runners-up are Westborough’s Patrick Kelley, Cam Erickson, Drew Keddy, Brendan McCafferty, Tyler Nagi, Mike Kurlan, Grant Pellechio, Kevin McCarthy, Matthew Ragan, Drew Stanton, Jack Cardin and Alex Badger. The team is managed by Tim Keddy who is assisted by Rob Nagi and Mike Stanton.