HUDSON — Belchertown overstayed its welcome but wasn’t ready to leave.
Post 239 dug in against Andover Post 8 in Wednesday’s American Legion Chairman’s Cup semifinal for nine innings. The other two semifinalists, Hudson and Natick, arrived for a 7 p.m. start but had to wait for the first game to finish. They leaned against the fence behind Andover’s dugout and pulled for their fellow Eastern Mass residents.
It sounded like Belchertown against the world.
“Everbody was rooting against us,” Belchertown’s Jack Feltovic said. “We did a pretty good job battling, playing our game and within ourselves, not getting too focused on what anybody else was doing and fought back.”
Post 239 took the lead three times, but Andover rallied just as many and ended Belchertown’s run with a 9-8 score after nine innings.
Terry Morrisey lifted a sacrifice fly to right field with one out in the top of the ninth. Belchertown relayed a throw to the infield, as John Bessette sprinted for home. The relay throw sailed high to give Post 8 its first lead since third inning and the advantage that mattered most.
But Belchertown had rallied before and put everything into the bottom half to earn a later checkout. Feltovic drew a two-out walk, and Austin Endelos singled behind him to put the winning run on first. Tyler Laramee struck out to end the game and send Andover to Thursday’s championship round. He slammed his helmet onto the hard, Hudson dirt while his teammates converged to console him.
They all knew how close they came to staving off elimination another day. Colin Kennedy gave Post 239 an 8-7 lead in the bottom of the sixth with an RBI groundout. Ty Gladu singled to open the inning then went all the way to third on a wild pitch. Kennedy stepped in after a strikeout and put the ball just enough in play to let Gladu come home while Andover threw to first. As the home team, Belchertown just needed three outs in the top of the seventh to send Andover home.
“Baseball always has something up its sleeve, especially in these games,” Kennedy said.
Andover’s Anthony Tiberio walked to open the seventh, then Bessette moved him over with a bunt. An error put runners on second to third, and Belchertown pulled starter Jordan Talbot for Kennedy. A Morrissey walk loaded the bases. Braeden Archambault then tied the game with a sacrifice fly.
Belchertown went down 1-2-3 in the seventh, and Kennedy pitched a perfect top of the eighth. Then Gladu led off the bottom half with a two-out walk then was thrown out trying to steal second.
“We came up a little bit short,” Belchertown coach Jeff Gladu said. “Take nothing away from that team, but we missed some opportunities.”
Post 239 left eight on base after amassing seven hits and eight walks. It also made seven errors.
Extra innings was just the last turn of a wild ride. Belchertown struck first on an error in the first. Ryan Zawistowski reached on a fielders choice then stole second before coming to third on an error. A Feltovic walk loaded the bases before Endelos’ grounder brought Zawistowski home.
Andover tied it the next inning with a Morrisey RBI double then took a 4-1 lead in the top of the third on an Evan Brenner double, a Tiberio single and a Bessette sacrifice fly.
“That’s where you would typically see a team fold in a big pressure game,” Belchertown coach Mark Zawistowski said. “These guys don’t fold. They use that as energy, they use that as fuel to come back and do some more. Nothing fazes these guys.”
Belchertown took the lead the next half inning when Jack Feltovic lined a two-run single, and Andrew Fijal roped another two-run single right over the shortstop’s head to make it 5-4.
Feltovic picked up another two RBIs with a single that hit third base in the fourth and made it 7-4. He singled twice, had four RBIs and walked twice. Ty Gladu walked three times and scored three runs, while Ryan Zawistowski scored twice and doubled.
“We weren’t trying to do too much, just hitting balls hard, putting balls in play. Good things happen,” Feltovic said. “We just strung together a couple of good at bats and good things happen.”
They happened to Andover in the top of the sixth when Brenner hit an RBI double, and Post 8 tied the game at 7 on a throw to first that sailed out of play.
Belchertown clawed for one more lead but couldn’t hold Andover at bay. Post 239 fielded a shell of the team that helped it reach the state tournament due to vacations and college visits. Few expected them to last so long.
They didn’t think they’d become the team they did, either. Post 239 was a hodgepodge of players from Amherst, Belchertown, Hopkins Academy, Granby and Pathfinder. Most of them had faced each other more times than they’d been in the same infield. But they became a team over the course of the season, bonding in the dugout and after practice.
Many will go their separate ways, either playing in college or otherwise aging out of eligibility. But their bond will remain.
“Sometimes what you see on the field is a reflection of what they do off the field,” Mark Zawistowski said. “That’s what breeds that togetherness and that tightness that eliminates the one town vs. the other because it’s a team.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.