EASTHAMPTON — Two batters into the game, Easthampton Post 224 was already playing catch-up. It couldn’t quite finish the job in its Western Massachusetts American Legion postseason game against Wilbraham Red.

After falling behind by seven, Easthampton had the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the seventh, but fell 7-4, Tuesday at Daley Field.

The loss drops Post 224 into the losers’ bracket of the double elimination tournament. It will play Thursday, but its opponent, time and location are still to be determined.

Easthampton coach Kevin Wilby was hopeful that his team’s rally would give it momentum moving forward.

“At one point it was a little ugly, but we made a game out of it. It was good to see,” Wilby said. “Our bats have been great lately. We have a lot of confidence.”

First baseman Brandon Bennett agreed.

“We started off rusty and slow but I’m glad we were able to fight back,” he said. “We didn’t get the result we wanted, but at least we showed promise. We never back down. We’ve been down more than that and come back and won.”

Wilbraham’s Cam Mariani jumped on the first pitch he saw from Will Jordan and moved to second on a pickoff throw wide of the base.

Two pitches later, Jean Pierre Catellier roped a double over the left fielder’s head to make it 1-0. He scored two batters later on Zach Handzel’s RBI single.

Easthampton left eight runners on base in the game, including three in the first inning.

It could have escaped the second unscathed, but a would-be 1-2-3 inning was marred by two errors that led to two more Wilbraham runs and a 4-0 deficit for the home team.

Wilbraham added another run in the third and two more in the fourth to stretch its edge to 7-0.

Easthampton got on the board when Troy Donohue committed a bases-loaded balk sending Bennett home from third. Tyler Vishaway followed with an RBI ground out to make it 7-2.

Reliever Hunter Leveille did his part to keep Easthampton alive with three scoreless innings.

“With our bats I just wanted to stay in this game,” Wilby said.

Bennett launched a one-out solo home run over the fence in right field to make it 7-3 and back-to-back errors on a botched pickoff allowed Hunter Books to score making it 7-4.

Donohue set down the first two Easthampton batters to open the seventh, but Steve Moussette and Tim Fay each stroked two-out singles bringing the tying run to the plate. But Donohue struck out Cody Cavanaugh on a close pitch to end it.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com.

Wilbraham Red 7, Easthampton 4

Wilbraham Red         221 200 0 — 7 13 1

Easthampton             000 202 0 — 4 6 2

WP—Donahue LP—Jordan

Records: Wilbraham Red (11-9); Easthampton (10-10)

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