EASTHAMPTON — Hunter Brooks stepped to the plate leading off the bottom of the second, looking to provide a spark for Easthampton Post 224 in its scoreless American Legion playoff game, Monday at Daley Field.
Longmeadow pitcher Brendan Philbin quickly had Brooks down 1-2 in the count.
“It started off a little shaky,” Brooks said. “I wasn’t seeing it too well.”
Brooks drew the count even at 2-2, and then continued to battle, fouling off five straight pitches. Finally, on the 10th pitch of the at-bat, Brooks found the one he was looking for and sent the ball over the left field fence.
The solo shot highlighted a three-run second for Easthampton. It was all they needed in a 3-1 victory.
“I was able to get some pitches where I just kept fouling it off and fouling it off, and I was able to barrel one up and put a good swing on it,” Brooks said.
Post 224 fed off the energy from the home run. John Carey followed and singled, then Gage Fortin double to the wall to put runners on second and third for Easthampton.
With nobody out, Cam Ziomek grounded to the Longmeadow shortstop. Playing in, the shortstop threw home to challenge Carey at the plate. Carey turned back to third and a pickle ensued. After several throws, Carey escaped on an overthrow and scored. Fortin moved to third and Ziomek took second on the play. During Bennett Kelly’s at-bat, a wild pitch scored Fortin to give Post 224 a 3-0 lead.
“We had a pretty good stretch coming up to this,” Easthampton coach Kevin Wilby said. “We had a group of guys that were playing every single game, and we were really starting to play well offensively, defensively, and pitching.”
Easthampton starter Tim Fay didn’t allow a run as he struck out six, walked one and allowed four hits over 5⅔ innings. Fay worked out of multiple jams against the Longmeadow offense. In the top of the third, runners reached second and third after a walk and a ground-rule double, but Fay escaped without any damage.
In the fourth, Longmeadow had runners at the corners with one out when it attempted a double steal. Post 224 second baseman Ziomek cut off the throw and threw home to Brooks, who tagged Jerold Duquette for the second out. A ground out ended the inning.
“Most of my defense picked me up, and I was able to throw a few good pitches,” Fay said. “I was just trying to throw strikes and challenge hitters.”
Fay was replaced by reliever Mike Baldwin with two outs in the sixth. Baldwin pitch the final four outs of the game, allowing a run on two hits for the save.
“Our pitching performance was really strong,” Wilby said.
Easthampton (9-10) will play at Greenfield (13-4-1) at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
“One thing we deal with that other teams might not is, we have players from five different schools, so it takes a little bit in the beginning of the season,” Wilby said. “But now we’re really together, we’re one complete team, and it’s really exciting. We’re hoping to make a run here if we can.”