little league

Little league returns to Steve Blass Field

Little league returns to Steve Blass Field

Kurt Hall squared up in the batter's box on opening day of Steve Blass Little League AAA baseball April 27 in North Canaan.

Riley Klein

NORTH CANAAN — Steve Blass Little League AAA baseball opened the 2024 season on Saturday, April 27, with an afternoon match between the Giants and Red Sox.

The Giants stood tall and came out on top with a 15-7 win over their Region One counterparts, the Red Sox. Steve Blass AAA teams are composed of players aged 9 to 11 from Cornwall, Kent, Falls Village, Norfolk, North Canaan, Salisbury and Sharon.

Quin Bryant pitched two and two-thirds innings for the Giants on opening day.Riley Klein

Conditions on Steve Blass Field were ideal for opening day baseball. Dandelions were blooming in the outfield beneath partly cloudy skies, about 64 degrees at game time.

Quin Bryant began the game on the mound for the Giants. “His brother was a catcher and needed someone to throw to him. So, he’s been pitching since he was about 3,” explained Bryant’s mother as he warmed up. Bryant then put the Red Sox out in order in the top of the first.

Ben Young got some advice from big brother Nate before stealing home.Riley Klein

Ben Young pitched at the start for the Red Sox and unleashed a cannon from the mound. His big brother, Nate, pitched in the Steve Blass Little League last year and said he taught his brother everything he knows. The younger Young went on to strike out three batters in the bottom of the first.

Young then put the Red Sox on the board by stealing home in the top of the second inning. Lane Brooks and Sam Hamlin followed closely behind and each stole home themselves to even up the score at 3-3.

Lane Brooks stole second from Owen Cooper when the Red Sox played the Giants in AAA little league, April 27.Riley Klein

The Giants went on a run in the bottom of the second and pulled ahead to 10-3. Bentley King aided the cause by hitting a triple with bases loaded and bringing in three runs. Harold Pascual also brought two runners home with a single.

In the third inning, the Red Sox tacked on two more runs. Quinn McNiff stole home on a wild pitch, then Young hit a single and Sam Norbet made it home to bring the score to 10-5.

The Giants kept their foot on the gas and added five runs in the bottom of the third. Brayden Zinke, Lucas Wolfe, Colin Sherwood, Everett Kindred and Chris Johnson all touched home, making it a 15-5 game. The Red Sox saw Hamlin and Brooks score in the fourth, before the game ended 15-7 by run rule.

Harold Pascual reeled in a fly ball in left field for the Giants.Riley Klein

Ben Young led the Red Sox offensively with one RBI and went 2-for-2 at bat. Young and Sam Hamlin were both quick on the swivel, stealing several bases a piece. In total, the Red Sox stole six bases from the Giants.

Chris Johnson and Harold Pascual each put the bat on the ball twice for the Giants, with Pascual bringing home three RBIs. Bentley King also brought in three runs on a triple.

Berkley Karcheski played center field for the Red Sox.Riley Klein

little league

Latest News

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.

Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Anderson and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

Keep ReadingShow less
history

A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

In the company of artists

In the company of artists

Curator Henry Klimowicz, left, with artists Brigitta Varadi and Amy Podmore at The Re Institute

Aida Laleian

For anyone who wants a deeper glimpse into how art comes about, an on-site artist talk is a rich experience worth the trip.On Saturday, June 14, Henry Klimowicz’s cavernous Re Institute — a vast, converted 1960’s barn north of Millerton — hosted Amy Podmore and Brigitta Varadi, who elucidated their process to a small but engaged crowd amid the installation of sculptures and two remarkable videos.

Though they were all there at different times, a common thread among Klimowicz, Podmore and Varadi is their experience of New Hampshire’s famed MacDowell Colony. The silence, the safety of being able to walk in the woods at night, and the camaraderie of other working artists are precious goads to hardworking creativity. For his part, for fifteen years, Klimowicz has promoted community among thousands of participating artists, in the hope that the pairs or groups he shows together will always be linked. “To be an artist,” he stressed, “is to be among other artists.”

Keep ReadingShow less
exhibit