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Spring baseball led to summer baseball, and the 9U boys of summer made it count. Eleven players from DS were selected to play in the prestigious MetroWest Tondorf Tournament. The league included teams from Ashland, Bellingham, Holliston, Hopedale, Hopkinton, Medway, Millis, and Dover Sherborn.
The team played well in the regular season, going 5-5 with some strong wins. They made the playoffs as the 5 seed, and in the first round beat an excellent Bellingham team in an offensive showdown, 17 to 11. In the semi-finals, they faced Hopkinton, whom they had lost to twice in the regular season. They avenged both of those losses with a 9 to 3 win to make it to the best-of-three finals against Holliston.
Holliston had finished the regular season as the number 1 seed, posting a 10-2-1 record. One of their two losses had been against Dover Sherborn. It was bound to be an exciting three-game series, and it didn't disappoint.
The Dover Sherborn 9Us lost the opener, 10-1. Any other team would have let that defeat bring them down, but DS wouldn't have any of it. In game two, Dover Sherborn showed their prowess with an impressive 10-3 win, and it would all come down to game three.
It was under the lights in Medway, an 8 p.m. start, and the boys were ready. After scoring two runs in the top of the first, Dover Sherborn let up three runs in the bottom of the first. Then the pitchers settled in, and runs were hard to come by. DS squeaked one by in the 3rd to tie it up, but Holliston added one in the bottom of the 3rd to go back up, 4-3. A Dover Sherborn run in the 5th tied it at four, and they held Holliston to none.
The game headed into its final frame tied. Dover Sherborn found a way to put another run on the board in the 6th to go up, 5-4, and some stellar defense sealed the deal for the win and the championship.
The boys celebrated the well-deserved championship, and the 9Us slept well.
