By DICK DUMAIS

For the Citizen

GILFORD — Ready or not, the NH-ASA Junior Olympic State Tournaments are on for this weekend. And although the Nor’Easter 14U’s have had some time to prepare for this weekend’s tournament, their fellow 16U’s have barely practiced a week and now have the states staring them in the face. With the NHIAA Class M Finals one week later than last year, 16U Head Coach Jeff Crowell has had less time than normal to work out the kinks before this year’s state tournament.

Crowell’s 16U squad will be looking to repeat as NH-ASA State Champions this weekend when they open at 6 pm against the Somersworth Krush at the West Side Softball fields in Manchester. The 14U’s look to improve upon their third place finish last year when they open at Wheelock Park in Keene at 8:30 against the Hudson Heat Blue.

This will be the second meeting of the season for the 14U’s and the Heat. The Nor’Easters defeated the Heat 6-2 in the "Just Play It" Tournament held in Hudson three weeks ago.If the 16U’s win Friday night they will play Pete’s Dragons on Saturday at 11 am. If they lose they will play a loser bracket game on Saturday at 8 am. If the 14U’s win they will play in a semi-final match at 6:30 Saturday night. If they lose they will play a loser’s bracket game at noon on Saturday.Both Nor’Easter teams have the nucleus of their players back from last year. Critical in the double-elimination tournament will be the pitching staffs and both teams are deep in that area. Leading the 16U’s will be Alyssa Crowell who last weekend was one batter away from pitching a perfect game against Scarborough, ME. Crowell will share pitching assignments with Ali Dumais and Michele Baca.Crowell hopes his team will make fewer base running miscues than they did at Scarborough. "Our run production was down last weekend because we ran into outs and we spent some time working on the problem this week."

What did come alive for the 16U’s were the bats of newcomers Mel Huntoon (3 for 5) and Heather Mayhew (3 for 6) along with veterans Lacey Simoneau, Jacqui Feehily and Kara Irwin. The toughest challenge for the 16U’s is adjusting to new positions on defense.

"We bring a lot of talented players into the program who are now playing different positions than they did during their school season," said Crowell."What’s exciting is in just one week they have quickly adapted to those new positions. I’m excited to see the results of their hard work this weekend," added Crowell.

For Trish LeMien’s 14U’s, expect Chelsea Proulx and Felicia Bua to share the mound this weekend. Both pitchers had stellar performances at Scarborough last weekend with a combined ERA of just 1.17.

Look for Lindsey Fickett (6 for 13) and Ava Siedensticker (4 for 13) to lead the team offensively.

LeMien feels her team will be competitive this weekend. "This is the second year at 14U for most of our players. Overall the team is more mature, our pitching is must stronger and we’re hitting with more confidence."