NORTHAMPTON — Northampton Post 28 secured a spot in the best-of-three championship series of the Western Massachusetts American Legion playoffs Sunday with a 5-3 win over Westfield Post 124.
Northampton will play at Arcanum Field on Tuesday against the winner of Monday’s game between East Springfield and Pittsfield. The winner of the series will travel to the state tournament in Milford on July 22.
“Whoever we’re playing, we’re playing a really good team, so we better be ready,” Northampton coach Chuck Holt said. “We need to just get a little rest (Monday) and then make sure that we’re playing our best baseball.”
In the top of the third inning, Steve McKenna hit a hard RBI double, and Jack Blake and Stefan Krol scored for Post 124 to tie the game 3-3. Northampton catcher Andrew Serio stopped Anthony Riga from scoring a third run on the play when Riga attempted to jump over him.
In the bottom of the third, Kevin Banas scored off a Pat Grygorcewicz triple to put Post 28 up 4-3. Post 28 furthered its lead in the bottom of the fifth when Banas hit a hard RBI triple to center field and Ostberg scored to make it 5-3.
Holt was impressed by how Banas has been performing in the postseason.
“Unbelievable. It would have been unbelievable either way, but he did the same thing (Saturday),” Holt said. “He shut the door on Agawam, and so we had him available to do the same thing today. And then to also have a huge hit on top of it was really cool.”
Banas ended the game by walking a ground ball from Krol over to first base to beat the runner and secure the win for Post 28.
“It was kind of a surprise. I kind of just got thrown in,” Banas said. “But I knew I was probably one of the better options, especially with all of the arms we’re running through. Everyone just has a tired or sore arm.”
Northampton struck in the first inning Hector DeJesus, Tim Horton and Ian Ostberg scored for Post 28 off RBIs from Will O’Connor and Grygorcewicz.
Banas replaced Brandon Ziakowski (one strikeout) in the fourth inning. Banas struck out three over four innings and allowed no earned runs.
Northampton is 3-1 in postseason play.
On Saturday morning, Northampton defeated Agawam 7-3. Zac Brittain, DeJesus and Serio scored twice and O’Connor scored once in the win. Northampton’s Liam Pitrat pitched the first three innings and Banas finished the game on the mound.
On Saturday afternoon, Westfield defeated Northampton 9-7. Horton and Ostberg scored twice and DeJesus, Grygorcewicz and Mike Mieczkowski scored once. Tristan Szawlowski, Ostberg, Brittain and Ziakowski pitched for Post 28.
“Every team is dealing with fatigue, and Westfield just had an unbelievable game against us yesterday,” Holt said. “They played so well we didn’t have really any margin for error, and because we made a few miscues, it cost us yesterday. It’s just the mistakes that we made, they took advantage of.”