Plymouth Cal Ripken All-Stars Heads to New England Regionals

The youngest of four Cal Ripken All-Star squads for Plymouth are undefeated as they move on to the New England Regionals which takes place Aug. 3-8 in Walpole, NH. The first stop for the Plymouth 9U team was winning the District 8 title over arch-rival South Plymouth, 7-2, according to Brian Fabry of the Boston Herald. 

In the state semifinals versus  Riverside-Bradford (Haverhill), Plymouth trailed 12-4 going into the bottom half of the 4th inning but scored three runs to cut the lead to 12-7. RBH added another run to pad the lead 13-7 in the top half of the 5th.  

In the bottom of the 5th, the Plymouth bats erupted for 13 runs as the squad batted around the order. The highlight of the inning was a blast from tournament MVP Nick Dirito, who cleared the bases with a one-out triple to the wall.

The Eastern Mass State Championship game was anti-climatic as the semifinals awoke the Plymouth sleeping bear for a 12-0 rout over Kingston. With the win, head coach Cabby Brini and his team earned the right to face the New Hampshire state champion, Seacoast, in the first round of an eight-team, double-elimination tournament in Walpole, NH.

This is not the first time a Plymouth team in the 9U Division has advanced to the Cal Ripken New England Regionals as they went to the Final Four in 2011 giving Plymouth NE Regional representation twice in the last three years.