2012 Little League East Region: Day 7

Bedford (NH) 2, Wellesley South (MA) 0

What a great performance on the mound from Bedford's Grant Lavigne. The player who was compared to Barry Bonds before the tournament began looked more like Greg Maddux today. Lavigne tossed a complete game shutout with just one strikeout. Almost every out came via the ground ball. It was dominant without being overpowering. Fun stuff to watch. Billy Seidl was great for Massachusetts but kept getting into deep counts and he didn't last too long on the hill. Offensively, Wellesley put the ball in play, but great pitching and some tough luck equals a lot of balls hit right at people.

Bedford will have Tim Saltzman and Connor Collins available in the final. Saltzman hasn't been as effective in Bristol as he was in New Hampshire, but he might be the perfect recipe for Connecticut. Fairfield has been an offensive juggernaut most of the summer, but little pitchers that mix it up well tend to give them trouble. I think its pitch selection that causes some of the problem. We'll see in the final.

Fairfield American (CT) 4, South Burlington (VT) 3 (F/8)

I mentioned South Burlington's upset of Yalesville back in 2001. They nearly pulled off the same caliber of upset 11 years later. Fairfield was completely on the ropes from the fifth inning on and never looked comfortable all game long. Unshakable Ryan Meury wasn't as sharp as usual on the mound despite not giving up an earned run and striking out eight batters in 4.1 innings if that makes any sense.

With the game so close early on, Fairfield stuck with Meury instead of saving him for the championship game. With the game heading to extra innings, the ineligibility of Matty Clarkin loomed a bit larger.

Vermont's Ethan Klesch was superb on the mound and kept his group of "David's" in the game. He pitched eight great innings against Connecticut in this tournament. He had one bad inning in pool play. Otherwise, he was mystifying. Biagio Paoletta walked five times which has to be some kind of record. While it looked like Vermont was around the plate against him, five walks seems like they wanted no part of the super slugger. Will Lucas eventually came through with the game-winning hit to give the entire Nutmeg State a huge sigh of relief.

Predictions & Previews

#3 Collier Township (PA) vs. #2 Par-Troy East (PA)

Both teams are coming off big wins at the end of pool play, but New Jersey is in the driver's seat pitching-wise. Collier's Nick Serafino should get the start and he's been great. He's a dynamite number two pitcher (Zach Rohaley is unavailable after tossing semifinal-clinching victory against New York). For New Jersey, Emil Matti and Bener Uygen are both available. There's a good chance you see both of them. All of the Jersey relief pitching is available as well.

Serafino, Rohaley, Hess, and company are starting to come around with their bats late in games and they'll need that again against a talented New Jersey team. Anthony Scannelli has been PTE's hottest hitter along with Matti. If Uygen and one other bat step up... Jersey looks good too.

Prediction: New Jersey 5, Pennsylvania 4

#4 West Salisbury (MD) vs. #1 Newark National (DE)

Maryland is coming off two straight losses that they gave away late while setting up their pitching for today. Grason Winterbottom is potentially unavailable, so Matt Chrystostome will be relied on heavily to get the job done. Delaware has been on fire, but will be without star pitcher, Clayton Hansen. The pitching strength doesn't end there though. Joe Silan, Drew Emory, and Matt Theodorakis are all available and all effective. Silan took the lone loss of the tournament against this same Maryland team, however.

No matter who pitches for Delaware though, it shouldn't matter. Unfortunately for Maryland, Winterbottom is the only player really swinging a great bat. He single-handedly beat Delaware last time and I doubt Newark National will allow that to happen again. Newark lost in the semifinals last season by a lone run. This time they win it a little more comfortably.

Prediction: Delaware 6, Maryland 2