WILBRAHAM — The Cardiac Kids are western Mass. champions.
An improbable, marathon of a night under the lights saw second-seeded Greenfield Post 81 win two elimination games on Tuesday. The club trailed in both games but picked up wins over No. 1 Pittsfield Post 68 (7-3) and No. 4 Wilbraham Post 286 Red (8-7) to capture the American Legion District 1 championship at Spec Pond.
Greenfield (17-5) will represent the district at the state legion tournament, starting Saturday in Milford. It was the club’s first title since 2014.
“It’s so satisfying,” Post 81 manager Kyle Phelps said after his team pig piled in front of the pitcher’s mound following the final out in the 8-7 championship-game win over Wilbraham Red. “The character of this team… they never gave up.”
Pressed into duty with the majority of the team’s pitchers ineligible due to pitch count, Kalen Evans gave Post 81 six innings on the mound in the final against Wilbraham Red. Evans allowed four runs in the first inning but buckled down the rest of the way, keeping his team within striking distance and ultimately earning the victory.
“There’s just a lot of trust with this team. We all trust one another,” said Evans, who struck out one and didn’t walk a batter. “We’ve lost in the playoffs the last couple years, ever since I’ve been here. We all really wanted this.”
Hoping to ride the momentum of a win in the semifinal against Pittsfield just minutes earlier, Post 81 did not get the kind of started it hoped for. Wilbraham Red’s first six batters registered singles in the bottom of the first inning, highlighted by a Troy Donohue two-run hit. The quick offensive start against Evans staked Post 286 to a 4-0 advantage right out of the gates.
After Evans hit Wilbraham’s Dom Colucci with a pitch to load the bases, play was halted briefly following an argument between the two sides. In the end, Wilbraham’s first base coach was ejected, and tempers were boiling early.
Evans settled in after the rocky opening stanza, and Post 81 broke through for its first runs of the championship game in the top of the third. Garrett DeForest and Colin Cloutier reached on back-to-back singles to open the inning, and Ben Arnold walked to load the bases with no outs. Connor Waitkus and Kiernan Freeman registered RBI ground outs that cut the deficit to 4-2.
Greenfield clawed closer in the top of the fourth, starting a rally with two outs and nobody on base. Bryan Baumann booked it up the line to reach on an infield single to extend the frame, and DeForest followed with a single of his own. With Baumann on second base, Wilbraham starter Ben Dunklee spun for a pick-off attempt that got away into center field. Baumann sped to third, and the throw in from the outfield also got away, allowing the speedy leadoff hitter to score. DeForest took third on the two errors, and he scampered home one batter later on a wild pitch that pulled Greenfield back even at 4-4.
Wilbraham was back on its heels at that point, and Post 81 took advantage. Evans broke the tie with a two-run single in the top of the fifth, and Owen Phelps (ground out) and Baumann (double) tacked on RBIs of their own for a commanding 8-4 lead.
Wilbraham pulled two runs back in the bottom of the fifth, using two Greenfield errors to make it an 8-6 game. Red got another run in the sixth, but Evans escaped further damage, and Waitkus came on to earn the save with a scoreless seventh inning to seal the title – his first mound performance in the playoffs.
“This group of guys, we’re from different schools but we all have that same competitive edge,” Evans said. “We all want to win. No one quits. And it’s been like that all summer.”
Six outs from elimination in the first game of the doubleheader, Greenfield rose from the ashes.
Greenfield’s offense finally got to Pittsfield starting pitcher Ian Benoit in the top of the sixth inning, and the squad rallied from a 2-0 deficit with four runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh en route to a 7-3 victory in the semifinal round.
“Pittsfield sent us home in the playoffs two years in a row so we really wanted to go out and win that first game,” Phelps said.
Benoit allowed just three hits through five innings of work, and his team pushed single runs across in the fourth and fifth innings to take a 2-0 advantage.
Arnold put Greenfield on the board with an RBI single that plated Baumann and cut the lead to 2-1. With two outs and the bases loaded, Evans tied the game with a base hit, and Max Charest came off the bench to pinch hit in a huge spot. Charest came through, lacing a two-run single up the third base line that plated Arnold and Freeman to make it a 4-2 game.
The relief pitching of Jacob Berry was a big reason Post 81 was able to stay within striking range. Greenfield got 4⅓ solid innings from Joel Peabody, but Berry came on with runners on base and his team in a 2-0 hole in the fifth. Berry got out of the jam however, leaving the bases loaded.
His offense capitalized in the sixth, and kept rolling in the top of the seventh. Five straight singles to lead off the inning led to three more runs, with Arnold, Waitkus and Freeman driving in runs to make it a 7-2 advantage.
Top-seeded Pittsfield (17-4) got one back in the home half of the seventh, but Berry shut the door and earned the win in relief that sent Post 81 into the championship game.