DARIEN, Conn. When you have twice as many hits as your opponent, you would expect to win. Not so for the Darien U-15 Babe Ruth team, sunk by fielding woes against Greenwich in the District 1 losers bracket final. A whopping six errors led to seven unearned runs and Darien being eliminated, 9-6.
"It was absolutely the errors. Error have killed us in this tournament," Darien's 20-year-old head coach Mike Alfieri said. "We let up seven unearned runs the other day against Stamford, too."
Darien struggled mightily in the field and with runners on base, stranding seven. Darien also had a runner thrown out at home and at third base, killing two possible rallies.
Trailing 9-3, Darien finally got the bats going in the seventh and final inning, scoring three times on four consecutive hits. Darien managed to get the tying run at the plate, but they had dug themselves too deep a hole.
Darien outhit Greenwich 10-5, with Miles Ridder leading the way with a 3-for-3 evening. Darien's 6-through-9 hitters went a collective 2-for-14, snuffing out rallies the top of the order tried to start on multiple occasions.
"It was interesting that last inning. I thought we had a little magic, but it was a little late," Alfieri said. "We did not show how good of a team we are in the last few games. We can play defense and score a lot of runs."
The season is not quite over for Darien, which begins play in the I-84 league in two weeks.
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