Berlin Little League 11s Fall In Opener Of State Sectionals

The Berlin Little League 11-year old all-stars lost their first game in the District 5 crossover tournament. After that loss, Coach Lenny Tubbs said he would be surprised if his team didn't get back to the championship round and he thought they could win the title even though they were just one loss away from being eliminated.

The locals came back and won the district title and advanced to the State Sectionals in Milford. 

Thursday night, Berlin dropped its first game of the sectionals in Milford, 13-3 to Fairfield American. 

Tubbs was just as confident and defiant after the loss Wednesday as he was after the district loss.

"It's not like we haven't been there before," Tubbs said. There is no doubt we can do this thing. We didn't play the game tonight but that's Little League baseball. We'll come back and we'll fight and I think we'll get back to the finals."

Fairfield has a strong Little League program and its 12-year old team made it all the way to Williamsport, PA. last year for the Little League World Series.

Fairfield took a 1-0 lead off Berlin starter Kevin Dunn in the first inning. The second inning was a nightmare for Berlin; playing under the lights, with an 8 p.m. start time, for the first time all year. 

"In the second inning we couldn't make a play," Tubbs said. "We couldn't pick up a ground ball. We couldn't find the ball in the lights. We couldn't do anything right."

As a result, Fairfield scored six runs to pull out to a 7-0 lead and never looked back. 

Alex Halkias led Berlin with two hits. Dunn hit a solo home run and Zach Murray added a single. 

"I think the kids were affected by the atmosphere but they have played in big games before," Tubbs said. "We got it to 7-3 and they hit a grand slam to make it 12-3 so that pretty much did it. I think we could have taken them down. We hit line drive shots all night but they were right at the outfielders. They didn't have to move to catch these smashes. But that's how it goes. It was one of those days."