SOUTH HADLEY — A sacrifice fly would do.
Anything in play would do.
Adam Pilachowski just wanted contact to end the game.
The South Hadley senior stood in his batter’s box with one out and Colin Paleologopoulos on third in the 12th inning.
Belchertown’s Jack Kamins threw him a 3-1 fastball.
Pilachowski punched the ball into left field, emptying South Hadley’s dugout in celebration.
“I was looking for it,” Pilachowski said. “I was just like, ‘we just won the game, finally it’s over.’”
The top-seeded Tigers prevailed 2-1 in the Western Massachusetts Division 3 quarterfinals on Tuesday, outlasting No. 9 Belchertown.
The Orioles (12-8) led for much of regulation after taking a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning when Jason French singled to score Johnny Camerota.
Belchertown could have added to its lead in the fifth. The Orioles had runners on first and second with no outs but couldn’t get any runs across.
“It was that kind of game,” Belchertown coach Tony Pierno said.
But the Orioles still held the 1-0 lead going to the bottom of the seventh, and they’d previously beaten South Hadley (17-4) by that same score on the same field on May 17.
The Tigers had other ideas.
Belchertown walked the first South Hadley batter before a single put runners on first and second.
Another walk followed to load the bases with one out.
David Pratt walked to score Thomas Shea and send the game to extra innings.
“Home-field advantage is a huge advantage in that situation. The pressure isn’t as much. Every time you have three more outs to go,” South Hadley coach Matt Foley said.
The Tigers also knew they could turn to a pitcher that stayed strong almost to the end.
Alex Dragon threw 131 pitches in 10 innings of work.
He struck out four, allowing 10 hits and two walks.
“Right now I’m just working off ibuprofen basically,” Dragon said. “After every late inning (the coaches) were telling me ‘no, you’re coming out next inning.’ I’m begging to pitch this next inning every time.”
Dragon eventually gave way to Ryan Mooney, who threw two scoreless innings to finish off the game.
Once the game went past nine innings, South Hadley needed to reset its scoreboard to account for the last three innings because there weren’t enough columns on the board.
“I haven’t seen a high school game go 12 innings 2-1,” Pierno said. “We left a lot of men on base.”
A dozen, to be exact.
But South Hadley left 11 men on base, too.
The Tigers just happened to execute in two moments where not coming through could have ended their season.
“Being the top seed, you’ve got a lot of eyes on you, everyone’s looking at you, big crowd here today,” Dragon said. “We felt the pressure, and we ended up on top.”
South Hadley will play Wahconah (14-8) at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Western New England University in Springfield.
The Orioles ended their best season in three years under Pierno.
Monday was the last game for Belchertown seniors Camerota, Mike Clark, Jackson Dziel, French, Jonathan Ingram, Kamins, Carl Teschke, Ethan Barry, Jackson Dziel and Brian Perlok.
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettnet.com.