The Capital Area 15U Babe Ruth team is just two victories away from a New England championship.
The Augusta area team — which beat Sanford for the state championship on June 16 — owns a 3-0 record in the New England tournament, hosted in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Capital Area, the No. 1 seed in the A pool, beat Warwick, R.I. 5-0 on Friday, then edged Westfield, Mass. 1-0 on Saturday. Capital Area went on to beat Kingswood, New Hampshire. 6-3 on Sunday to reach the tournament semifinal.
“It’s pretty exciting,” Capital Area coach Jason Douin said. “To think that about two weeks ago at this time, we were getting the team together, started practices. We didn’t really have too many expectations. We knew we had some good baseball players, but they all came together… Our boys have been playing spectacular baseball and we’re fortunate to get three wins.”
In order to win the championship, Capital Area must win two games on Tuesday. Its first test will be against No. 2 seed and host Pittsfield, Mass. in the semifinal game at 1 p.m at Wahconah Park. If Capital Area wins that game, it would play the winner of the Braintree, Mass. vs. Norwalk, Connecticut game, scheduled for 10 a.m., for the tournament championship. The regional title game will be played at 4 p.m.
“These guys have been resilient, they’ve got great attitudes,” Douin said. “They keep in mind that (the mentality is) team-first, for a team to be successful. These kids are doing that, and that’s a special formula.”
The Babe Ruth 15U World Series is scheduled from Aug. 12-19 in Jamestown, New York.
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