CARIBOU — Sleepers and VFW are meeting in a best two-of-three series, with the Caribou Little League championship on the line.
Sleepers, the American League regular season champion, drew a first-round bye and then proceeded to knock off the Woodland Tigers in the semifinals, 20-1, and Key Bank in the league championship, 10-9.
VFW, the No. 2 seed in the National League, also drew a bye and toppled Shop ’n Save in the semifinals, 6-1, before besting Police in the division title game, 12-2.
Other playoff scores were as follows: National League quarterfinals, Bank of Maine 16, S.W. Collins 15; Shop ’n Save 20, Woodland Eagles 7; American League semifinals, Key Bank 13, Northstars 6; National League semifinals, Police 18, Bank of Maine 12.
The championship series got under way Tuesday, July 17. Game two will be played Wednesday, July 18 at 6 p.m. on the Robert P. White Field. Game three, if necessary, will be played Friday, July 20 at 6 p.m.
Summaries of a few of last week’s playoff games follow:
NL Quarterfinals
Bank of Maine 16,
S.W. Collins 15
Bank of Maine and S.W. Collins matched up in a thrilling National League playoff game. Bank of Maine managed to come out on top after spotting Collins a 10-3 lead, playing tough defense down the stretch with their bats coming alive to bring them back.
Bank of Maine was led by Sebastian Marquis with two hits and Brennan Poitras, Seth Roy and Jaelyn Doody, who had a hit apiece. S.W. Collins got hits from Dan Randolph, Tyler Wright, Sydney Thompson and Dagan Savage.
Shop ’n Save 20,
Woodland Eagles 7
Shop ’n Save rode a 20-hit attack to get by the Eagles 20-7 in another quarterfinal. Three Shop ’n Save players had four hits apiece, including Tristan Mancos, who had a home run deep over the center field fence and a triple. Alex Ezzy hit for the cycle, with an inside-the-park home run, and Carter Conley had a double and a triple among his four hits. Kerrigan Manter, Evan Burgay and Liam McMillon each had two singles, while Ethan Holdsworth added a two-run inside-the-park home run.
For the Eagles, Caleb Trombley had three hits, including two triples and two RBIs. Ghent Durepo had a single and a double and Wyatt Taggett had an RBI double.
AL Semifinals
Sleepers 20, Woodland Tigers 1
With a balanced offensive and defensive game, Sleepers got by the Woodland Tigers to advance. Sleepers pitchers combined for 16 strikeouts and gave up only one run. Offensively, Sleepers was led by Jacob Ouellette and Alec Cyr, who combined to go 10 for 10 with six runs and six RBIs.
Hayden Hunter, Jay Belanger and Kara Madore each went 2 for 3.
For the Tigers, Brandon Manter was 3 for 3 with a single, double and a triple, while Cameron Doody, Carter Moir and Megan Thornton each had hits.
NL Semifinals
VFW 6, Shop ’n Save 1
VFW pitchers Matt Nadeau and Jerred Morrow combined to allow only one run and shut down the Shop ’n Save offense to win their National League semifinal matchup.
Nadeau started and went the first 1-2/3 innings, and Morrow came in and pitched the final 4-1/3 innings. Along the way, VFW made several key putouts in the field, including an unassisted double play by first baseman Katie Clark to snuff out a Shop ’n Save rally. At the plate, Evan Desmond and Corey Guerrette had key RBI singles and Nadeau added a double.
For Shop ’n Save, Alex Ezzy and Carter Conley each had two hits in defeat. Parker Deprey had a triple and was knocked in on a squeeze bunt by Kerrigan Manter for Shop ’n Save’s only run. On the mound, Tristan Mancos, Deprey, and Manter pitched well in defeat.
AL Championship
Sleepers 10, Key Bank 9
In a thrilling American League championship game, Sleepers and Key Bank both featured strong pitching, clutch hitting and exciting comebacks. The lead changed hands three times in the final two innings with Sleepers pulling out a 10-9 victory by scoring two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Key Bank got started early, grabbing a 6-2 lead after a three-run home run by Noah Frost in the fourth inning. Sleepers knotted the score with one swing of the bat by Camden Huck, who launched a grand-slam home run to tie the game in the bottom of the fourth.
A triple by Jay Belanger of Sleepers was the key hit in a two-run fifth inning for Sleepers. Key Bank, down to their final at-bat, got clutch hits by Seth Beidelman and Branden Masse to tie the score and a sacrifice fly from Frost to take a 9-8 lead.
In their final turn at bat, however, Sleepers’ Stewart Curtis and Hayden Hunter drove in the tying and winning runs, respectively, and Sleepers earned the American League Championship and a spot in the Caribou Little League World Series.
NL Championship
VFW 12, Police 2
The National League Championship brought together teams that split their season series with two very close games.
VFW got off to a hot start by scoring three runs in the top of the first inning on back-to-back doubles by Evan Desmond and Matt Nadeau, followed by a Jerred Morrow RBI single. In the bottom of the first, the Police got one run back on good baserunning by Dylan Paddleford.
VFW pulled away as they scored five more runs in the next two innings, capped by Nadeau’s bases-clearing inside-the-park home run. Solid pitching was the theme again for this team as Nadeau and Desmond combined for six innings, giving up only two runs on five hits while striking out 12. Also contributing for VFW was Josh Cummings with an RBI single.
For Police, Paddleford had a double and a single and Dawson Hebert, Bailey Griffeth, and Rachel Soucy contributed singles.
