Wilbraham Funeral Home clinched the second seed in the upcoming Tri-County League playoffs by edging Manny’s TV & Appliance Center, 4-3, in men’s amateur baseball action Tuesday night at Veterans Memorial Field in Greenfield.
Wilbraham finished the regular season 15-5 overall and earned the No. 2 seed after Easthampton Savings Bank (14-6) was beaten by DiFranco Realty, 10-2. DiFranco clinched a playoff berth with the win.
Manny’s grabbed the early lead with a run in the second inning. Chase Tunniss singled, TJ Meyer reached on an error and Ryan McAuliffe laid down a sacrifice bunt and reached base on an error to load the bases. Jamie Carey hit a sacrifice fly to plate Tunniss.
Wilbraham answered with three runs in the third inning. Nick Iavicoli, Mike Tranghese and Connor Perry all singled to load the bases with no outs. After Manny’s got the first out, Matt O’Herron slapped a two-run single to give Wilbraham the lead. Andrew Noonan followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1.
Manny’s got a run back in the bottom of the fourth when McAuliffe and Joe Warner each drew one-out walks and Greg Vouros laced an RBI single.
Wilbraham scored its fourth run on a fifth-inning error, while Manny’s matched it in the bottom of the frame when Kyle Platner roped a leadoff double and scored from second on a wild pitch.
O’Herron finished with three hits and KJ White singled doubled and tripled for Wilbraham, which outhit Manny’s 9-7.
Platner and Tunniss had two hits apiece for Manny’s.
Tyler Tongue struck out four and walked one in five innings to earn the win.
Devin Rhodes fanned two and walked no one in the complete-game loss.
Manny’s (8-11), in the middle of a five-team logjam, won’t know its fate until after tonight’s play. Manny’s travels to St. Joseph’s for a 7:30 p.m. contest to close out the regular-season slate.
Frontier 9, Amherst 2 — Kalen Evans fired a complete game and struck out nine to lead sixth-seeded Frontier to a 9-2 win over third-seeded Amherst in the first round of the Mickey Mantle Baseball League double-elimination playoffs Tuesday night at Ziomek Field in Amherst.
Joe Hildreth led a balanced offense with double and two RBIs. Matt Hildreth doubled and scored three times, Xavier Santiago added two singles and one RBI, and Kiernan Freeman contributed a single and triple.
Spencer Telega was a defensive standout in left field.
Frontier moves on to face second-seeded Dalton in the next round Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at Pine Grove Park in Dalton.
Dalton 6, Hubie’s 5 — Cam Campbell went 3-for-4 to help Dalton beat seventh-seeded Hubie’s Tavern & Restaurant, 6-5, in a Mickey Mantle playoff game Tuesday at Pine Grove Park.
Jared Ackerman led the Mohawk offense by going 2-for-2 with a triple and three RBIs. Hunter Wells went 2-for-3, and Jordan Loughman singled and scored twice.
Jacob Hubbard went the distance for Hubie’s. He fanned eight and did not walk a batter.
Mohawk travels to Amherst in an elimination game Thursday at 5:30.