Here is this years Berkshire League Girls Tennis Singles Tournament bracket. The girls start the tournament on Saturday at  at the Salisbury School in Salisbury at 8 a.m. The semi-finals and finals are scheduled to be played on Monday at Wamogo High School at 3:30 p.m. 

This is the doubles bracket.

Pete Paguaga

ppaguaga@registercitizen.com

@PetePaguaga on Twitter

Who would you pick if in a fight a Highlander, which is someone who inhabits a highland (courtesy of Merriam-Webster dictionary) a Spartan, a person of great courage and self discipline (also courtesy of Merriam-Webster dictionary) or a Golden Bear, which I imagine is a bear covered in gold fur?

Did you decide?

Because those are your choices for who will come home with the Berkshire League baseball title.

Going into the final stretch of the season the three teams with a chance to win the title are Northwestern 16-0 (14-0 in BL play), Thomaston 12-3 (12-1) and Lewis Mills 11-4 (11-3) and luckily for fans of the BL they all meet at some point in the next week.

Lets go team by team and look at what is in store for them, shall we.

Northwestern

The Highlanders, which makes sense now on why their school is up on a mountain, will play Thomaston at home on Wednesday who they beat in eight innings on the road this season, Shepaug on the road on Thursday and then Lewis Mills, who they held off at their home field early this season, on Monday, May 20 before finishing their season off at home next Wednesday against Terryville.

All season Northwestern has stressed how important pitching is to their teams success and they’re right, pitching is successful to any team, but I believe their bats will have the final say in how this season ends for them.

Not saying Zach August, Jimi Phillips and co. haven't done an excellent job this season, because they have, but their lineup is scary from top to bottom and some of the guys on their bench would be starting on teams in the BL.

Their 3-4-5 of Zach Risedorf, Mike Jeffko and John Lippincott is the scariest middle of the order of any team in the league. Especially when John Ambrozaitis and Eddie Eseppi get on base, good luck trying to not let up a run.

The Highlanders just have to do what they have done all the season and they shouldn’t have a problem coming home as champions of the league.

Have you decided yet?

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Thomaston

The Golden Bears have a tough road ahead, they take on Lewis Mills at Mills on Tuesday, who they came back and beat on a walk-off homerun by Connor Berg earlier in the season. They then travel to Northwestern who they shutout for seven innings in their only loss this season in the BL. If they can get past those two they host Wamogo on Friday, who is not an easy win and then they finish off their season at Nonnewaug on the 20^th and Litchfield on the 22^nd.

Before the year began, the Golden Bears were confident in their ability to hit and they questioned their pitching, well the way this season has gone that couldn’t be more wrong.

The duo of Blaise Russo and Brian Butkevicius have carried the Golden Bears to where they are in the standings right now.

Russo has baffled hitters all season with his long delivery and calm demeanor on the hill.

Butkevicius who is the complete opposite of Russo is a hard throwing right-hander whose emotion his team feeds off of.

This team has hit during the season, Berg started off the regular season off on fire, Jake Tehan and Joe Fainer hit well during the scrimmages before the season. Drew Gagne can get on base and when he does he can steal bases and Mike Milius has hit well for the Golden Bears at the bottom of the lineup.

The question is can they put it all together when it matters most? If they can they can give Northwestern a run for the top spot.

It all starts on Tuesday though against Lewis Mills, they can’t look ahead towards Northwestern who they play the next day.

What about now?

Lewis Mills

The Spartans finish the season against Thomaston on Tuesday, Terryville on Wednesday both at home. Next week they host Northwestern on Monday and then Immaculate on Tuesday before finishing on the road at Wamogo.

That is a lot of games in a small time span; the question is will the Spartans have enough arms to get them through it?

Zane Milbourn, Ben Czarnecki and Sam Brooke has pitched well this season for the Spartans and they will need to lean on them if they want to overcome the long odds and win the BL title.

They can hit very well, their bats were alive for half of the game against Thomaston and against Northwestern. In the Thomaston game the Spartans bats showed up for the first half and in the Northwestern game they showed up in the second half.

It will all start with Isaac Abreu at the top of the order; if he can set the tone for the Spartans they will be successful.

This is going to be a crazy finish to a great BL season.

If you haven’t decided whom you got yet, you better choose soon because you don't want to miss out on this finish.