Holden gets big victory in return to sectionals.

• Position: SPORTS

Byline: John McGuirk

LEOMINSTER - It had been 21 years since a Little League baseball team from Holden last reached the Major Division State Sectional Tournament. Following its opening-round 17-9 win over Leominster American, it appears Holden released two decades worth of frustration Wednesday night at PFC Jonathan Roberge Memorial Field.

In a game that lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes, Holden moves into the winners' bracket and will host Pittsfield South - a 4-1 winner over Westfield North -at 5:30 tonight.

Leominster American will host Westfield North in a losers' bracket game, also at 5:30.

Holden, which last played in the sectionals in 1992, banged out 13 hits and took advantage of seven Leominster American errors.

The visitors scored seven times over the first two innings. RBIs by Johnny Flynn and Ryan Prosser gave Holden a 2-0 first inning lead. The first of Cole Durkan's two homers and a bundle of Leominster American miscues plated five more runs in the second.

Leominster American briefly made it a game by scoring four times in the third, including a two-run homer by Tyler Carr and an RBI fly out by Nate Glynn.

"It was good to get Cole going," Holden manager Skip Marconi said. "He's had a couple of games where he hasn't done nearly what he did tonight. I tell the kids once you put the bat on the ball good things usually happen and tonight it did."

Pitching was not the highlight for either team on this warm evening as each team struggled to consistently throw strikes.

Holden simply shrugged off Leominster American's rally. In the fourth, Durkan blasted a home run with a man aboard over the center field fence. Holden's other...