GREENFIELD — Last time here, Carter Matthews left with a bad taste in his mouth. He was rocked for four runs in 4⅔ innings and Post 81 pounded his Berkshire bunch, 7-4.
In the biggest game of the season to date, Matthews got his revenge.
“I hate losing,” the crafty lefty said. “So them beating us last time really fired me up.”
Behind a complete-game, four-hitter by Matthews, Pittsfield Post 68 dominated a sloppy Greenfield Post 81 on its way to an 11-3 win at Veterans Memorial Field Thursday night in the American Legion Senior Division winner’s bracket semifinals.
Pittsfield will play in the championship game of the pool, Saturday, while Greenfield will now come back home to play a do-or-die ballgame tonight at 7 against Wilbraham Blue. If Greenfield wins, it will head to Pittsfield on Saturday.
Heading into the game, Pittsfield manager Pat Bassi told his team it needed to clean up its act from its last matchup with Post 81, after a game filled with errors and unearned runs — and that’s exactly what it did.
“This is probably our best game of the year overall,” he said.
The Pittsfield team, sporting some players from the championship Taconic team from this spring’s high school season, played a clean game behind Matthews. The lefty struck out a mere three Greenfield batters, but had his fastball-curveball combo continuously beat into the ground. The solid infield snagged nearly every scorcher sent its way.
The same could not be said for the home team, which committed six errors on top of a handful of wild pitches.
“I think it was the worst game defensively we played all season,” Greenfield manager Kyle Phelps said. “For some reason, we picked the biggest game to do it.”
Part of what might’ve been at play was a case of over-confidence, he said. At the plate, Greenfield swung at several curveballs in the dirt that it didn’t last time facing Matthews. On the field, Post 81 juggled balls in the infield, overthrew first base, and overran balls in the outfield.
In the top of the first, with nearly perfect summer baseball weather, Greenfield only gave up one run, but it came on two outs and two errors.
“We set the tone early in the first inning,” Phelps said. “We misplayed plays we’ve made all season.”
Adam Hallenbeck started the game for Post 81, leaving in the fifth inning without retiring a batter. He was tagged with six runs, but only one earned. He finished with three strikeouts.
Greenfield threw a motley of pitchers the rest of the way, conscious of pitch-count rules, as it now enters the loser’s side of the playoff bracket.
Post 81 threatened in its half of the fifth inning after posting three runs. Matthews seemed on the hook at the time, with a 6-3 score, and another runner on first, but the lefty sat down the next three batters to end the lone threat of the game.
“When you have more errors than hits in a game you’re not going to win on any level,” Phelps said.
Pittsfield put the game out of reach in the seventh with four runs.
Matthews and Ian Benoit each finished 3-for-5 with two runs scored for Post 68.
Max Charest paced Post 81 with a pair of hits, including a triple, and scored once. Colin Cloutier singled twice and scored a run.