MILFORD — Now Northampton Post 28 will need to do it the hard way.
Northampton saw a one-run lead slip away after allowing five runs in a crushing sixth inning, and Braintree Post 86 dropped Post 28 into the loser’s bracket of the Massachusetts state American Legion baseball tournament following a 13-8 victory at Fino Field on Sunday.
Northampton (22-4), which defeated Barnstable, 11-1 in the tourney opener on Saturday thanks in part to a dominating effort on the mound by Kevin Banas, will meet Milford at 1 p.m. in an elimination game Monday. Milford stayed alive by beating Somerset 15-4 earlier in the day.
Zach Brittain will pitch for Northampton.
“We’ve got one of our best guys going, and we have a lot of trust in ourselves,’’ shortstop Ian Ostberg said. “We’ll just have to pick ourselves up.’’
Which is exactly what Northampton did after losing the opener of its sectional final series to East Springfield.
“We’re all frustrated with how we did today,’’ Ostberg said. “None of us had our best performance at the plate.
Northampton slugged its way into the state tournament, but Braintree gave Post 28 a taste of its own medicine Sunday.
Sean Casey keyed four-run eighth inning, as Braintree moved to a 13-4 edge. Andy Serio’s RBI double in the bottom of the inning made it 13-5.
There was no quit in Northampton. Post 28 scored three ninth-inning runs, but it wasn’t enough.
Ostberg hit a booming triple to right and scored on a 400-foot sacrifice fly by Pat Grygorociewicz. Derek Zewinski added an RBI double, and Matt Bouley had an RBI single to finish the scoring.
“We didn’t quit,’’ coach Chuck Holt said. “But we needed to play better defense.’’
Northampton uncharacteristically made three errors.
“Because we’ve been a solid defensive team, I have tons of confidence in our defense,’’ Holt said. ‘“They totally made us pay for it.‘’
This was a see-saw battle – for a while. After Northampton rallied from a 3-0 deficit to take a 4-3 lead, Braintree broke the game open by scoring five runs in the sixth inning.
An infield error opened the floodgates. After Joe Vanelli reached on an error, Sean Casey singled, and a Steve Burns single loaded the bases.
Nolan Freeman delivered a two-run single, as Post 86 erased the deficit and moved to a 5-4 lead.
Justin Adams followed with a two-run single and another infield error enabled Braintree to take an 8-4 advantage.
“We just shot ourselves in the foot, and they’re a better team than we gave them credit,’’ Ostberg said.
Hector DeJesus and Tim Horton walked to start the fifth inning and both scored. Grygociewicz had an RBI single to plate DeJesus and Horton scored the go-ahead run on a passed ball.
Mike Mieczkowski’s two-run single cut Braintree’s lead to 3-2 in the fourth inning.
Cole Flanery reached on an infield error and scored on a wild pitch before Bill Silvia stroked an RBI single to give Braintree a 3-2 second-inning lead. Silvia scored the game’s first run after he singled, swiped second, took third on a passed ball and scored on a fielder’s choice by Vanelli.
Braintree 13, Northampton 8
Braintree 120 005 140 — 13 11 1
Northampton 000 220 013 — 8 11 3
WP—Roche LP—Pitrat
Records: Northampton (23-4) Braintree (20-6)