Dover 11U 60-foot Cal Ripken baseball team reaches New Hampshire finals

DOVER — The hard work the Dover 11U 60-foot Cal Ripken baseball team put in on the field has earned the team two nice rewards.

First, coach Geoff Kinnicutt gave the team the Fourth of July weekend off, yes it's a holiday, but the team earned it. Secondly, on Tuesday night, the Dover 11U/60 team was set to start playing for a state championship.

Dover was set to host Concord at Keays Field Tuesday night, weather permitting, in the opener of a best-of-three series.

"The kids, they've worked real hard through the rec season, but also through the last month in preparation of everything," Kinnicutt said. "They're really excited to, hopefully, win this tournament and move on to regionals."

The New England regional tournament has tentative dates of July 16-24, and will be held in Canyon Falls, Maine, which the winner of Dover and Concord will head to after the state championship.

For the state championship, game 2 will be on Thursday at 5:30, and game three, if necessary, will also be on Thursday at 8:00 p.m Under the Lights.

Dover has not played Concord this summer, but Kinncutt is expecting the series to go all three games.

"From what I understand, the Concord team is a good team," Kinnicutt said. "We are expecting them to have a number of solid pitchers, so we're going to have to make sure that we come on and can match their position, and keep them off the base paths."

Leading up to the state championship, Kinnicutt said the focus has been tightening up its game.

"We've tried to go back and improve on what we've done already," he said. "Really just trying to get everyone into the right mindset; we've had a little bit more fun recently. We had a team outing last week, I gave everyone a break over the weekend, but it's just making sure that everyone is ready and knows what they need to do. They've been working real hard, so I haven't had any issues letting them have a little fun recently."

Though the entire team has been playing well, Kinnicutt pointed out Slayter Saucier and Brady Caswell as strong performers.

"(Caswell) has come in and has been really great at getting on base, whether it be hitting the ball or being able to draw a good walk," Kinnicutt said. "He's played really well in the field."

Through three games, Caswell boasts a .500 batting average and a .714 on-base percentage, a run scored and has drawn three walks.

Kinnicutt also highlighted Mason Legere, who has a .667 average with three RBI.

"He's played great for us in centerfield as well as shortstop," Kinnicutt said of Legere. "He's also contributed a lot at the plate, and has the most hits on the team so far."

The team roster also includes Slayter Saucier, Colin Flynn, Mason Legere, Oscar Kinnicutt, Peter Leggett, Parker Redman, Max Newton, Brady Caswell, Danny Toland, Tanner Bernard, Ethan DeStefano, Griffin Lara and Zach Crisp.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Dover 11U 60-foot Cal Ripken baseball team reaches NH finals