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Pittsfield Post 68 Falls in American Legion State Final, Clinches Regional Berth
By Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires.com Sports
12:32AM / Thursday, July 28, 2016
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NORWOOD, Mass. -- After battling its way into the state championship game on Wedneasday afternoon, the Post 68 American Legion baseball team had precious little energy for that game.
 
And despite battling gamely to the final out, Post 68 dropped a 9-5 decision to Shrewsbury Post 397 in the title game.
 
“After playing nine innings in 90-degree temperatures, and then they’re expected to come out and play again, it’s tough,” Post 68 coach Pat Bassi said. “And [Shrewsbury was] fresh.
 
“But that’s not an excuse. I tell the kids, we win as a team, we lose as a team.”
 
Pittsfield did the former in Wednesday’s first game, overcoming deficits of 3-0 and 5-4 to beat Lowell Post 87, 8-7, clinch a spot in the Northeast Regional and advance to the state final.
 
Chad Shade went 3-for-5 with a triple, a double and two stolen bases, and Sam Fick and Izaiya Mestre combined to strike out eight in the victory.
 
Pittsfield scored four in the top of the third to erase an early 3-0 deficit.
 
Patrick Colvin and Abdiel Cotto-Hernandez got things started with an infield single and a walk, respectively, to bring up the top of the order, and Shade doubled to give Post 68 its first run. Jack Cooney added an RBI single, and Matt Schneider hit a two-run double to complete the rally and make it 4-3.
 
Lowell responded with two in the bottom of the third, but Post 68 immediately regained the lead.
 
Brett Murphy started a three-run rally with an eight-pitch walk. Colvin and Cotto-Hernandez then bunted their way on base. Murphy scored on an error, and Shade tripled home Colvin before scoring on Cooney’s RBI groundout to make it 7-5.
 
Colvin (3-for-3, three runs scored) again singled in the sixth and came home on a Shade single up the middle to provide an insurance run.
 
And that run came in handy as Lowell got solo homers in the sixth and seventh. Post 87’s Joseph Csokmay came within a couple of feet of his second homer with two out in the bottom of the ninth, but his shot down the line in left was just foul, and Mestre caught him looking at a third strike to end the game.
 
Fick gave up five unearned runs in 4-⅔ before Mestre came on to go the rest of the way.
 
In the state final against Shrewsbury, Ross Omelenchuck got off to a rocky start on the mound, hitting two men in the first inning and falling behind, 2-1. But then he settled down with three clean innings before the wheels came off in the fifth.
 
Shrewsbury scored three to take a 5-3 lead and end the night for Omelenchuck, who handed the ball to Jake Flynn, one of the heroes of Post 68’s Western Mass title clincher last week.
 
Flynn held the line for a couple of innings, but Shrewsbury touched him for three in the eighth to push its lead to 9-4.
 
Post 68, which scored single runs in the first, second, fifth and sixth, managed one more singleton in the ninth. Cotto-Hernandez started the last-chance rally with a leadoff single and Shade took his place on a fielder’s choice.
 
An errant pickoff try moved Shade to second, and Cooney reached on an infield single to put runners at the corners for Matt Koperniak, who grounded out to the right side to score Shade. But that was all Post 68 could muster as Shrewsbury’s closer got the final out swinging.
 
Shrewsbury starter Charles Batchelder struck out 10 while scattering nine hits. Cotto-Hernandez was the offensive standout for Post 68, going 3-for-3 with an RBI double and a walk.
 
Post 68 continues on to the Northeast Regional starting next Wednesday in Bristol, Conn.
 
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