The Northampton 12U softball team secured the 2026 Massachusetts District 2 Little League championship after rallying to defeat Wilbraham, 4-3, on Tuesday.
Trailing 2-1, the Blue Devils scored three runs in the top of the fifth inning off RBI hits from Annalia Palladino and Maya Coates to go ahead, 3-2.
An RBI triple from the Falcons in the sixth evened the score at 3-3 and forced extra innings, where Northampton quickly regained the lead on an RBI single from Sylvia Berthe.
Blue Devils pitcher Alison Kajka shut the door in the bottom half of the frame, striking out two Wilbraham batters before snagging a 1-3 putout to seal the 4-3 victory.
Northampton closed out the season 10-2, and beat healthy competition during its playoff run in Southampton and Hadley/Amherst on the way to its first district title since 2019.
Youth baseball
The Amherst Royals won the Hadley/Frontier League 12U Championship Tuesday night at Herlihy Field, beating South Deerfield VFW 21-4 in five innings.
The Royals had 16 hits in the game, with Gabe Sommers leading the way with three hits. Liam Eddy, Andy Rabinsky, Nico Carulli, Levi Chalif, Liam Soares and Max Maier each collected two hits.
Levi Chalif, who hit a two-run homer in the fifth over the center field fence, got the win for the Royals, while Gabe Sommers got the save.
PVYBL Koufax Division
Amherst cracked 15 hits en route to its huge 13-2 victory over Brattleboro at Tenney Field on Tuesday.
Daniel Lebron, Gus Garrett Peltier, Cyrus Arwade, Oliver Howard, Jack Bajnoci and Ian Kim all concluded with multi-hit games for the Hurricanes, who moved to 2-0 on the season.
Ultimate
Amherst middle schoolers 3rd in state
The Amherst Regional Middle School ultimate team finished third at the Massachusetts state championship tournament on Sunday, June 7 at Devens.
Amherst beat Arlington and Belmont BUDA in the first two rounds before falling to Shady Hill 8-5 in the semifinal. Elo Schwabe, Dara Seang, and June Boice represented the team in an all-star game to close out the tournament.
“With only two returning players from last year’s championship-winning team, I’m proud of how this team grew over the course of this season,” said coach Jim Pistrang. “ They worked together, they trusted one another, and truly played as a team. The future of Amherst ultimate is bright.”
