SOUTH HADLEY — The sixth inning began smoothly enough for pitcher Ethan Fleming and South Hadley.
It ended just as roughly.
Post 260 led at the start of the frame but eventually fell behind and dropped the game 9-5 on Wednesday. The result gave No. 8-seeded Greenfield a sweep of the best-of-three American Legion playoff series and ended No. 9 South Hadley’s season.
Greenfield’s Seth Gewanter grounded out to open the bottom of the sixth with South Hadley ahead 4-2.
With one out, Tyler Charboneau walked followed by a Julian Diamond pop out. Two outs and one inning to go made a Tuesday Game 3 look likely.
Then Gavan Rice reached on an error to set up the madness.
Danny Szafron worked a full count, and Fleming threw him a pitch that he and the rest of South Hadley thought touched the outside corner. The umpire appeared to carry out his strike motion, signaling the end of the inning, before explaining the pitch was outside.
“It was just a weird call. He was motioning that the ball was away, we thought he was calling strike three,” South Hadley coach Matt Anthonis said. “It could have been a lot worse because the runner could have gone to third, and he didn’t.”
It still got worse.
Szafron walked to load the bases before Tionne Brown ripped a two-RBI single to tie the game at 4-4.
A fifth Greenfield run scored on a throwing error, giving Post 81 the lead.
“There’s a few plays we should have made,” South Hadley’s James Foley said. “I think we did it to ourselves a little.”
Nate Crocker then hit into a fielder’s choice that made it 6-4, prompting South Hadley to switch pitchers to Thomas Shea.
Zach Mooney hit an RBI single to put Greenfield up 7-4 before Gewanter ended the inning the same way he started it, with a groundout.
Greenfield tacked on two more runs in the top of the seventh inning and advanced to the next round.
“I challenged them every inning. I challenged their character, who they are as baseball players,” Greenfield coach Tim Capuano said. “They responded. We have all the talent in the world. We can match up with any team in the world, it’s just bringing it out of them.”
South Hadley trailed 2-0 after the third inning, but tied it at 2-2 on an Evan Levrault RBI single.
Nehemiah Wilson made it 4-2 with a two-run single with one out in the fourth inning.
Alex Dragon led off the inning with a single and Fleming walked. They moved to second and third on a wild pitch to set the stage for Wilson.
“We had a good feeling because the kid on the mound (Noah Barnes), we had hit all our life,” Foley said. “(We did it) being patient and waiting for our pitch.”
Barnes gave way to Quinn Doyle, who picked up the win, in the fifth inning. He only gave up one run in the bottom of the sixth inning when South Hadley started a rally.
Foley, who went 3 for 4, led off with a double, and Mario Oliveira drove him in to make it 7-5.
Ryan Kleszczynski then flew out, and Levrault grounded into a double play to snuff out Post 260’s momentum.
“We were coming in hot to the playoffs and just caught a better team,” Foley said.
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com.