Dover 11s advance to New England Cal Ripken baseball semifinals with 12-0 rout

NEW CANAAN, Connecticut — The Dover 11-and-under Cal Ripken baseball team entered Wednesday's game needing three wins to capture the New England regional title.

That number was very efficiently reduced to two.

Dover defeated Easton-Redding, Connectucut, 12-0, in four innings as the game was called due to the 10-run rule.

Dover was set to play in the semifinals against tournament host New Canaan on Thursday at 7 p.m., with the winner advancing to the championship game Friday at 6 p.m.

After suffering a close 6-5 defeat the night before to West Hartford, its first loss of the tournament, Dover bounced back.

"They came out ready to go," Dover coach Mike Lynch said. "They apparently learned some lessons from the night before and didn't take their foot off the gas. We hopped on their ace pretty early, and really hit the ball about as well as we hit all year."

Dover scored four runs in the first two innings, including three in the first inning. The knockout punch came in the third inning, when Dover scored eight runs.

"That was a perfect example of us just being patient and getting pitches we could hit," Lynch said. "It all started with Rhett Reed laying down a great bunt, and with his speed, he forced the pitcher to field (the ball) and throw it into right field."

Reed had three hits and collected four RBI. Camden Stowell and Connor Lynch each had two hits and two RBI, and Owen Lovering had two RBI as well.

Ben Cheek walked three times and Trey Longuil walked twice. Cheek pitched four innings, allowed two hits and struck out five batters.

This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Dover 11s advance to New England Cal Ripken baseball semifinals