SOUTH HADLEY — Danny Szafran and Tionne Brown helped spark a five-run, sixth-inning rally and Greenfield Post 81 swept its best-of-three American Legion Baseball District 1/2/3 first-round series with a 9-5 win over South Hadley Post 260 in Game 2 Monday night at Landers Diamond.
The first five innings were not kind to eighth-seeded Post 81 (10-7) and Greenfield went into the sixth inning mired in a 4-2 hole to ninth-seeded Post 260. It looked like more of the same for Post 81 in the sixth, as Tyler Charboneau worked a one-out walk but was still on first base with two outs. Yhat’s when things began to unravel for Post 260 (7-10).
Gaven Rice got it started by reaching on an error by South Hadley shortstop Alex Dragon, bringing Szafran to the plate. The Post 81 No. 7 hitter has been slumping at the plate of late and fell into a one-ball, two-strike hole against South Hadley pitcher Ethan Fleming. The righty’s next pitch was close but the home plate umpire called it outside, motioning that the ball was just off the plate, but the motion looked like he was ringing up the batter. After a brief moment of confusion, Szafran continued the at-bat and wound up working a walk to load the bases.
That brought up the sparkplug Brown, who was a call-up from the Junior Legion team and had already delivered a single and scored an earlier run. Brown fell behind in the count but, with two strikes, worked it full before slapping a single up the middle to plate two runs and tie the game. Post 81 wasn’t done there, either. Nate Crocker followed with a routine grounder to third that was thrown away, allowing the go-ahead run to score. Then Nate Luippold followed with an RBI single to second base to make it 6-4. Zach Mooney finished the onslaught with an RBI double to put Post 81 ahead, 7-4.
South Hadley came back with a run in the bottom of the sixth, when James Foley doubled and scored on an error. But Post 81 plated two more runs in the seventh, when Tyler Charboneau singled to lead off and scored on a Rice double. Rice scored on another two-out single by Brown, his third two-strike hit of the game. Brown finished with three hits, three RBIs and two runs scored.
“I usually like to see a strike and wait for my pitch to hit,” Brown said of the sixth-inning at bat. “I got a couple of tough calls from the ump. He was calling high strikes and I’m short, so it was a little tough. But I just like to see it in there, make contact and slap it out there, and good things happen.”
The offense wasn’t the only place Brown was helping his team. He started the game in right field but was moved to his natural position of second base in the bottom of the sixth inning as a defensive move by Post 81 coach Tim Capuano. The move paid off in a big way. Brown was the middle-man in a double play started by Tyler Charboneau to end the sixth inning. Then, in the seventh with a runner on and one out, Charboneau fielded a ground ball and went to Brown, who used his quick-pivot to deliver a strike to Luippold at first base to turn the second double play in as many innings and end the game.
“It’s just something you develop as a player,” the modest Brown said of his ability to turn twin killings.
Quinn Doyle earned the win in relief, pitching the final three innings of the game and finishing with one strikeout and one walk, allowing three hits and one run.
“He’s been a great change-of-pace guy for me,” Capuano said of the reliever. “He’s probably been my most effective pitcher all year. And if you had asked me who that would be at the beginning of the year, I probably wouldn’t have said him. Nothing against him, but we have a lot of great pitchers.”
While the Post 81 players and coaches were all smiles after the game, over the first five innings it was anything but happy times for the visitors. Greenfield did take a 2-0 lead in the third inning when Szafran reached on an error and Brown blooped a single to right to start the rally. Szafran later scored on a groundout by Luippold and Brown scored on a Mooney RBI single. South Hadley came right back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame off Post 81 starter Noah Barnes, who was victimized by an error that led to a pair of unearned runs. Barnes was also pitching down in the zone but not getting low-strike calls, something that had the Greenfield bench chirping more than once.
South Hadley took a 4-2 lead with a pair of runs in the fourth as Barnes allowed a two-run single to Nehemiah Wilson. He then walked two batters to load the bases with two outs but got out of the jam when he got Evan Levrault to pop out to first base to end the threat and avoid further damage. Barnes finished with four strikeouts and four walks in four innings.
Fleming suffered the loss, striking out three and walking three in 5 innings. Mario Oliveira had a hit and two RBIs for Post 260, and Foley finished with three hits, including the aforementioned double.
Post 81 advances to the second round of the District 1/2/3 playoffs, which now goes to a double-elimination format. The first game of that tournament takes place Wednesday night at 5:30 at Longmeadow High School, where the opponent will be No. 3 seed Longmeadow.