WILBRAHAM — The Wilbraham Falcons Senior American Legion baseball team tried to do what many teams have failed to do against Belchertown Post 239 on Tuesday evening.

In the top of the first inning with the game scoreless, Wilbraham loaded the bases with just one out against Belchertown ace Cody West. With the infield in, West knew he needed to pitch for a ground ball. He fired a pitch low in the zone to Falcons’ No. 5 hitter Vinny Chiarizio, who connected and hit a sharp grounder to third.

James Fitzgibbons scooped it up and wasted no time coming home with it to cut down the lead runner at the dish. And in one quick motion, Post 239 catcher Jacob Smith transferred the ball to his throwing hand and ripped a bullet down to Brady Perkins at first base – who stretched out to snag it in time for the double play.

West settled in and went on to throw a complete-game shutout in which we struck out seven, and he added a 3-for-3 day at the plate – including what turned out to be the game-winning hit in the second inning – to boost Belchertown to a 2-0 win in the District 3 semifinals at Minnechaug Regional High School.

“It was a big moment,” West said of the early double play. “Obviously you don’t want to give up runs. I knew with one out, bases loaded, you gotta get the ball on the ground to give the defense a chance. We’ve made big plays like that all year long. Trusting them behind me, knowing I just needed to get a ground ball so we could go hit and put some runs up is a big relief.”

The win continued Post 239’s undefeated season (17-0-1) and sends them to their second consecutive title game after winning the Western Mass. championship a year ago. They will host the winner of Aldenville Post 337 and East Springfield Post 420 at Belchertown High School on Wednesday evening (5:30 p.m.).

Although Belchertown may make it look easy, head coach Todd McDonald is well aware its journey back to another crown has been the complete opposite.

“It’s hard,” McDonald said, referring to being on the cusp of back-to-back titles. “I said it at the beginning of the season, there is a lot of good baseball being played in western Mass. In order to get to the point that we’re at, we have to play very good baseball. And we’ve done that all year. Regardless of what happens [Wednesday] night, these guys should be really proud of the season they’ve had. They’ve accomplished a lot.”

Base running was the key to Belchertown’s offense getting going early on. After a scoreless first frame, Perkins led off the second with a single before stealing both second and third base during West’s at bat.

Then West delivered a line drive to right-center field – his first of three hits – to bring Perkins in for the game’s first run. The following inning, Ian McDonald led off with a single of his own. And once he stole second and ended up on third two batters later, Perkins sent a fly ball out to left plenty deep enough to plate McDonald.

Aggressive running on the base paths has been a staple in Post 239’s offensive success, and that trend has carried into postseason play.

“We’ve had that ability this year,” Todd McDonald said. “We have guys that can get good reads, get good jumps and steal bases. We know that can work to our advantage, and it did in those instances today and it led to runs. We know that if we get guys to third base somehow that we have players in the lineup that can at least put the bat on the ball to try and get them home. Speed’s important, and a couple guys on this team have a knack for taking extra bases.”

Neither team posed another real scoring threat until the fifth, when another West single looked like it would easily score Perkins again – but he was thrown out by a laser from Wilbraham’s Liam Shea in left field.

Aside from the first inning, the Falcons didn’t have a base runner advance past second until the top of the seventh – when they loaded the bases again with the go-ahead run aboard.

Once more, West locked in and forced a line drive to center field, which was right at Spencer Waite who squeezed it for the final out of the game.

“He’s a leader, and that’s exactly why we had him out there today,” McDonald said of West. “And you’ve gotta remember, he also had three hits. He wants the ball in situations like this. That’s an excellent, excellent baseball team that we just beat. And we knew that we had to play the way that we did in order to beat them. Cody’s a leader, and that’s all I can say.”

Ian McDonald, Fitzgibbons, Perkins and Ryan Gould joined West’s three base knocks to combine for Post 239’s seven hits in the win. Falcons starter Josiah Zayas tossed 5 2/3 strong innings, walking five and striking out three while giving up two earned runs in a losing effort.

The game was moved to Minnechaug because of unplayable conditions due to the rain at Belchertown’s home diamond. There is hope the field will be in good enough shape for the championship game on Wednesday.