WILBRAHAM – Post 286 walked the wrong guy.

Wilbraham intentionally gave Belchertown’s Jake Smith a free pass to first with two outs in the eighth inning of Wednesday’s American Legion Senior Division District 1 baseball semifinal. Smith had already doubled, and the play gave Post 286 a force out at any base to go to the bottom half of the extra inning.

Tyler McDonald hadn’t done much in his previous three at bats. The Post 239 shortstop popped out twice and couldn’t outrun an attempted bunt to first. He put the ball exactly where it needed to be in order to induce an error that allowed Cooper Beckwith (hit, two runs) to score from third.

“We’ve got a lot of energy. We play for different high school teams, but when we come to play together in the summer, we just come out and have a good time,” McDonald said. “We get locked in, we start scoring runs and hitting the ball hard.”

Ryan Schneider pitched a 1-2-3 eighth to earn the victory in relief, 4-3. Belchertown advanced to the district final for the second consecutive season. They fell against Greenfield last year.

“I love this team. All these players can hit anybody. Nobody’s going to come out here and overpower us and put us away,” Belchertown’s Cody West said. “We were hitting the guy all night, it’s just a matter of time until they drop.”

Belchertown trailed 2-0 after the fourth inning. Wilbraham’s Vince Chiarizio dropped an RBI single just inside the first base line to make it 1-0 in the second, and Mike Nordstrom doubled Post 286’s lead with an RBI single in the fourth.

Post 239 only had two hits through five innings: a Jake Smith double in the second where he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple and a West single in the fourth.

Beckwith took a pitch between his shoulder blades with one out in the sixth, then his Hopkins Academy teammate West demolished a pitch to deep right field that made it 2-1. Brady Perkins induced an error that was thrown way out of play to knot the game at 2, then Marshall Ingram ripped an RBI double down the left line for a 3-2 lead.

Ingram scattered eight hits and four walks, allowing three runs in 6 1/3 innings on the mound.

“That’s a gutsy win,” West said. “Marshall really held a great team in check. We were down early, but we just kept playing and came back.”

They weren’t the only ones. Wilbraham’s Brady Gouin drew a one-out walk in the seventh, then Cade Norris dropped in a game-tying single.

Belchertown turned to Schneider out of the bullpen. He struck out the first batter he saw, but an error loaded the bases. Smith squeezed a tough pop up to end the inning and send the game to extras.

“In a night game that’s really tough with the lights, it gives us a lot of momentum knowing we have the top of the order coming up, too,” West said.

Belchertown will face Westfield for the title Thursday at a site and time to be determined.

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