The beat goes on for the Belchertown Post 239 Senior American Legion baseball team, as a trio of runs in the first inning were just enough to get it past previously undefeated East Springfield Post 420, 3-2, for consecutive win No. 7 on Wednesday night in a game that was moved to Springfield Central High School due to field conditions.
Post 239 is now 9-1 on the year and continues to win close games. They improved to a perfect record of 4-0 in games decided by three runs or less.
East Springfield got on the board in the top of the first to grab a quick 1-0 advantage, but Belchertown responded right away with three of its own. Post 420 plated another run in the third, however that would be the game’s last run thanks to strong relief pitching from Alex West, who tossed 2 2/3 scoreless innings and allowed three hits and one walk on one strikeout.
Ryan Gould got the start for Post 239, going 4 1/3 frames, surrendering four hits and the two runs while striking out two. He earned the win as he continues his strong summer on the mound.
Offensively, Ian McDonald had two of Belchertown’s four hits in the game, and he also walked and scored a run. Spencer Waite scored a run and walked three times, Chace Earle delivered an RBI hit, Thatcher Rudnik tallied a hit and walked while Josh Misiaszek drew a free pass and later came around to score.
Up next for Belchertown Post 239 is a game against Pittsfield Post 68 No. 1 on Friday evening at 5:45 p.m. The game is scheduled to be played at Belchertown High School.
Pittsfield Post 68 No. 2 6, Northampton Post 28 5 — After falling behind 6-0 through two innings, Post 28 rallied back and made it a game before ultimately falling in a one-run loss on Wednesday evening at Clapp Park in Pittsfield.
Four of Pittsfield’s runs came in the first inning (only two earned), then the hosts added another two unearned runs in the second to put a half dozen on the board. Northampton’s Harry Laflamme shut down Post 68-2 the rest of the way and the bats began heating up.
Matthew Vassallo keyed a three-run third inning by stinging a two-run double into a gap. Following a one-run fourth that made it 6-4, Liam Flynn came to the plate in the fifth and blasted a solo home run over the right field fence to bring Northampton within a single run. Post 28 had runners on in the final two innings but failed to come up with the big hit.
Anthony Incampo had two hits and scored two runs while Carter Styspeck ripped a run-scoring triple for Northampton.
Brattleboro (Vt.) 6, Amherst 5 (8) — In an eight-inning battle between two heavyweights at Tenney Field in Brattleboro, the Bears avenged an early-season loss to the ‘Canes by squeaking out a 6-5 win in the PVYBL Koufax Division.
Brattleboro grabbed the lead in the third, putting up three un-earned runs on some uncharacteristically sloppy defending from the Amherst infield. Starting pitcher Cyrus Arwade pitched the first three innings before being relieved by Brady Klaes, who allowed just one earned run over his 4 2/3 innings of work. The two pitchers combined for seven strikeouts.
The Hurricanes, down 4-2 after five innings, were able to chip away and tie the game to send it to extras. In the sixth inning, Drew Holland hit a sacrifice fly that scored Oliver Howard, and in the seventh, 7th leadoff hitter Daniel Lebron earned his way on base and came around to make it 4-4.
Howard again scored in the top of the eighth on a wild pitch after advancing to third on a Miles Fox sacrifice bunt, but the Bears would not go quietly as they strung three hits together on top of an Amherst error to put two across and take home the win.
Read Guidera collected two hits on the evening and played heads up defense in right field and at third base for the ‘Canes while Gus Garrett Peltier held down the catching duties for all eight innings and also contributed a hit.
