This past weekend, the ADSL’s girls softball team competed in and won the Mayors Cup U14 Championship, meeting their goal of bringing the Cup back to Dorchester for the first time since 2019.

Katie Kelly, Lila Curley, Kelly McKenna, Audrey Kelley, Addie Willet, and Christina George were all on that first-ever Dorchester championship team and they wanted to experience victory again.

After competing against each other in the competitive ADSL playoffs just weeks ago, the girls joined forces to take on the rest of the city in some friendly neighborhood rivalries.

Alliah Rosa digs into the batter’s box and gets ready for the next pitch.

Game time arrived on July 9 and the ADSL girls learned they would be facing Parkway. ADSL batted first and the Parkway pitcher mowed down the first three ADSL batters including two strikeouts. Christina George took the mound for Dorchester and was just as impressive striking out the first Parkway batter and getting the next two hitters to hit grounders back to her for the 1-3 putouts. After two innings, Parkway led 2-0, but the very vocal younger ADSL girls’ team, which had just finished their own Mayor’s Cup game, came over and cheered very loudly for the U14 team.

That boost changed things over the third and fourth innings when the ADSL squad exploded for five runs. Alannah Tankle, Katie Kelly, Maeve Pugsley, and Izzy McQuaid got it going, followed up by big hits by Nia Phillips and Audrey Kelly.

Christina George continued to throw strikes and the ADSL infield defense of Izzy McQuaid, Audrey Kelley, Julia Studley and Kelly McKenna was flawless resulting in no runs in the third and fourth innings for Parkway. Outfielders Katie Kelly, Lila Curley, Aleah Rosa, Rylee O’Conner, Maeve Pugsley, and Alannah Tankle were sharp in the outfield backing up plays and hitting cutoffs.

Jade Domenici gets ready on in the field.

In the fifth, ADSL picked up five runs with George, Rosa McLaughlin, Julia Studley, Lila Curley, Rylee O’Conner, and Katie Curley getting on base and Nia Phillips smashing a triple to bring runners home. In the bottom of the fifth Parkway scored two runs and had a girl on first base with one out. The next Parkway hitter hit a grounder to second that Julia Studley fielded cleanly then tagged the runner and fired to Kelly McKenna at first. The ball skipped by McKenna who chased it down and fired a perfect strike to Kelley who tagged out the Parkway runner trying to advance, ending the intense inning.

Going into the last half of the sixth, ADSL held a commanding 12-4 lead with George cruising on the hill. Parkway refused to go down without a fight. After a series of hits and home run, suddenly it was a 12-8 ball game. George settled down, though, and pitched her way out of the jam and Dorchester got the win and remained in the winner’s bracket.

On Sun., July 10, the girls were back on the diamond, and because Parkway had beaten its opponent in the loser’s bracket that morning, it was a rematch of the day before.

Nia Phillips took the mound for ADSL with Audrey Kelley behind the plate. Parkway got on the board early, taking a 3-0 early lead. Phillips settled in, and it became a pitcher’s duel the rest of the way between Phillips and Parkway’s Nina DeVito. ADSL scored three in the third to tie the game with aggressive baserunning and timely hitting. Parkway had to earn everything as ADSL’s defense was again flawless, led by the infield of Kelly McKenna, Julia Studley, Christina George, and Addie Willet who made tough plays all game.

ADSL was down, 5-4, going into the fifth, and Phillips was intentionally walked, with Audrey Kelley following up with a base hit. ADSL pulled off a double steal and now had runners on second and third. Phillips and Kelley scored on balls that got away from the catcher, sliding into home and giving Dorchester a 6-5 lead.

Star Dorchester baseball player Brady O’Conner and star U12 softball player Ava Tankle started a ”Let’s go Nia” chant when Phillips took the mound to start the fifth inning, and Phillips responded to the cheers by shutting down Parkway in the fifth and sixth. Helped by a sparkling infield defense, she led ADSL to the 6-5 win and the Mayor’s Cup title.

Kevin George is president of the All Dorchester Sports and Leadership Softball League.