Amherst 14U takes down Northampton, 12-9, during the second round of PVYBL Sandy Koufax playoffs

AMHERST — A fast start fueled the Amherst 14U baseball team past Northampton, 12-9, during the second round of the PVYBL Sandy Koufax playoffs at Amherst Middle School on Wednesday.

The Hurricanes scored nine of its 12 total runs across the first two innings, with a pair of booming doubles from Brady Klaes and Cyrus Arwade highlighting the hosts’ early scoring punch during the first frame.

Trailing 9-3 after three innings, Northampton slowly chipped away at Amherst’s lead, despite concluding the matchup with only three hits. The visitors tacked on six runs across the final three innings, with a prime opportunity to even the score during the top of the seventh tossed in there as well, but Amherst escaped Northampton’s late charge and managed to remain perfect during these playoffs.

“I liked the way we, offensively, just came out of the box firing on all cylinders,” Hurricanes head coach Sanjay Arwade said. “Best three innings of offense we’ve played all season, against a very good, fundamentally sound team. We just attacked, hit the ball and ran the bases. A run in the first inning is as important as a run in the seventh.”

Arwade attained four hits for Amherst (game-high) while Oliver Howard (2-for-5) and Daniel Lebron (1-for-4) each brought in three runs for the Hurricanes. Tristan Feeley (1-for-2, two RBIs), Nolan Ingram (1-for-3, one RBI) and Gus Garrett Peltier (1-for-3) joined in the hit department for Amherst, which rounded out the contest with 11 base-knocks.

On the hill, Ingram received the ‘W’ for the Hurricanes, throwing three innings after Klaes, Amherst’s starter, tossed the first three frames. Ingram allowed one hit and three runs (one earned), plus fanned seven Northampton batters and walked five. Klaes surrendered the same number of hits and runs as Ingram, but struck out four and walked two visiting batters.

Down 12-6 going into the top of the seventh, multiple fielding errors from Amherst, plus a couple of RBIs from Jackson Galenski and Campbell Keenan made it a three run ballgame at 12-9, with Northampton threatening for more with just one out.

Arwade got Amherst’s last two outs from the rubber in place of Nick Stinson—who began the inning on the mound—with a sacrifice fly and a strikeout.

“The end of the game was awesome from our boys,” Northampton head coach Michael Lawrence-Riddell said. “It’s hard to go in a hole, 9-2, in two innings and I think it’s easy to give up after that. We had some really gutty performances. Emmett Stith came in and pitched two really gutsy innings and helped us preserve our pitching for the rest of the tournament.

“The fight at the end was huge from our guys,” Lawrence-Riddell continued. “That’s a really good team over there. Great players, they got great pitching, their hitting is out of this world, they put the ball out there, they hit it hard, so anytime we play them we know it’s going to be a hard fought battle and today was one.”

Dylan Lawrence-Riddell (1-for-4, two RBIs) and Austin Barcomb (1-for-4) joined Campbell as Northampton’s trio of hit-getters.

Errors were plentiful throughout this one as Amherst finished with seven miscues, while Northampton had five.

This year’s Koufax playoffs are double elimination so Northampton is still alive, but must win-out the rest of the way to have a chance at a title. Northampton will travel to Whitingham—which beat Greenfield 14-0 Wednesday—on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

Amherst gets the luxury of returning to its home field for a meeting with West County—which downed Frontier 12-2 Wednesday. First pitch at Amherst Middle School is scheduled for 5:30.

“This double elimination format is brutal,” Arwade said. “We play [Thursday] night and with pitch count rules, it’s a struggle. We get to bring Cyrus at them, he’ll start [Thursday] night’s game and we have confidence….and it’ll be a good team. That’s the way it goes when you get deep into a tournament, so I’m excited. Good baseball is fun baseball.”

Late results

Northampton 15, Brattleboro (Vt.) 6 — Miles Cameron drove in five runs on three hits to lead Northampton past Brattleboro on Monday evening at Brattleboro Union High School in opening round play of the PVYBL Koufax playoffs. Cameron tallied a two-run single in the third, a two-run single in the fourth and an RBI walk in the seventh to lead the Blue Devils.

Northampton jumped out to the lead in the top of the third inning after an error scored one run, Cameron brought home two, Alex Visentin Laing walked in another and Dylan Lawrence-Riddell singled home a run.

Nicholas Theroux earned the win on the mound for the Blue Devils. The right-handed pitcher gave up six hits and three runs over five innings, striking out seven and walking one. Cameron and Lawrence-Riddell each pitched well in relief for Northampton.

Offensively, the Blue Devils accumulated a dozen hits in the game. Jackson Galenski (2-for-4), Austin Barcomb (2-for-3) and Cameron (3-for-4) bashed multiple base knocks in the victory.