Jean Pierre Catellier scattered three hits and a walk over seven innings and Wilbraham Red knocked Greenfield Post 81 from the unbeaten ranks with a 3-2 American Legion Baseball Senior Division game Wednesday at Veterans Memorial Field in Greenfield.
Wilbraham Red (7-2) got to Greenfield starter Joel Peabody for three runs in the first three innings and Post 81 (5-1) was unable to mount a comeback despite solid relief pitching from Sam Bobala and Ben Arnold.
“The bats were a little quiet tonight,” Post 81 coach Kyle Phelps said. “We didn’t strike out a lot. We hit some balls, but they were right at them and they made the plays. That’s baseball. Sometimes they just don’t find the holes.”
Wilbraham struck for two runs in the top of the second. With a runner on first following a walk, Catellier singled and Brendon O’Dell hit an RBI single to plate the game’s first run. After a sacrifice bunt, Catellier came around to score on a groundout.
Greenfield responded immediately when Connor Waitkus led off the bottom of the second with a walk and came all the way around to score when Max Charest roped a triple. That left Charest on third base with nobody out, but unfortunately for Post 81, he was left stranded there to end the inning.
Wilbraham reestablished the two-run advantage in the top of the third as Troy Donahue grounded out to first to score a runner from third.
The game settled into a pitcher’s duel, as Catellier kept the Post 81 bats guessing. The pitcher finished with just three strikeouts in seven innings, but allowed just three runs. Sam Bobala came on in relief of Peabody and pitched 2⅓ innings of scoreless relief with one strikeout and one walk.
“Sam did well. He pitched well all year long for Tech, and he has stepped right up for us and been fearless,” Phelps said. “He comes in and throws strikes. Our pitching has been there all season. We are getting guys in and using our bullpen, and we are putting up a lot of zeros off the bench.”
Greenfield got one run back in the sixth inning. Tionne Brown reached on an error and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Colin Cloutier, but that was as close as Post 81 got. Ben Arnold struck out two in one inning of relief for Post 81, but the team was unable to get anything off Catellier in the seventh.
Post 81 goes back to work Friday night when it hosts Westfield at 7.
Greenfield 7, Belchertown 2 — Brody Baird tossed a two-hit gem Wednesday to lead the Greenfield Post 81 Junior Legion team to a 7-2 win over Belchertown at Beacon Field in Greenfield.
Baird struck out five in five innings and needed just 43 pitches to get through his outing. He allowed just two fly-ball outs, getting eight outs on ground balls.
“He was very efficient and got a lot of ground balls,” Greenfield skipper Tom Bresciano lauded. “It was a good win for us.”
Dylan Apanell went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run scored in the win, while Bryan Baumann doubled and scored. Garrett DeForest hit a two-run single and scored twice, and Baird singled and scored twice. Bobby Provost Jr. went 2-for-3 with an RBI, and Nate Sciandra had a hit and scored a run.
Greenfield sits at 5-3 overall at the midway point of the regular season.