Canton Little League suffers first loss, falling to Maine in New England Region
BRISTOL, Conn. -- The Canton Little League team is undefeated no more. Canton suffered its first loss Monday afternoon, falling to Grey New Gloucester of Maine, 7-1, in their New England Regional clash in Bristol, Connecticut.
Canton is now 15-1 and can still make it to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, but will now have to win their next two games. They will next play Wednesday afternoon at 1 p.m. against New Hampshire.
The two teams had to wait a while to get the game in on Monday. It was initially supposed to start at 9 a.m., but the rainy weather in Bristol pushed the start time to 1 p.m. Grounds crews began to take the tarp off the field around 11 a.m., but more rain arrived and there was another delay. The game finally got underway shortly after 4 p.m. after a seven-hour delay.
When baseball did get underway, Canton starting pitcher Patrick Furbush helped his own cause by leading things off with a double. He advanced to third on a passed ball but was stranded when Maine starter Mason Amergian ended up striking out the side.
Amergian then drove in a run in the bottom of the first with an RBI double, and Maine jumped on top 2-0 after one inning. Amergian then broke things wide open in the bottom of the third, clubbing a grand slam off Canton's Sam Archibald to give Maine a 7-0 edge. In addition to his five RBI on Monday, Amergian struck out six batters over his 5.2 innings on the mound.
Canton plated their only run in the top of the fifth when catcher Will Casey grounded into a fielder's choice and Nate Chabot hustled to score from second, making it 7-1. Left fielder Brendan Ryan then reached on a throwing error, and Casey broke for home an another errant throw home by Maine on the play. But Casey was thrown out trying to get back to third, ending the inning for Canton.
Canton will now have to beat New Hampshire on Wednesday afternoon for an opportunity to play Maine again in Thursday night's New England Region Championship Game.
