GREENFIELD — Greenfield Post 81 was unable to keep up with the run barrage on Thursday night against Pittsfield Post 68, as the team opened its 2019 American Legion season with a run-shortened 15-3 loss at Vets Field.
“A game like this, you just have to flush it and it’s gone,” said Post 81 head coach Kyle Phelps. “(Pittsfield) is the defending champs and they’re probably one of the best teams we are going to face all season. It’s too bad we played them in the first game of the season.”
Greenfield finished the night with six hits, two walks and three runs offensively. Hunter Campbell went 1-for-3 with a double, an RBI and two runs scored. Colin Cloutier went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and both Jacob Berry and Jacob Bryant registered RBI singles.
Joel Peabody took the loss on the mound, allowing six hits, seven runs, and three walks over 2⅔ innings.
• Here’s a closer look at what to expect from Post 81 this season:
There comes a time every year when Phelps takes his first tours around the local Franklin County high school teams looking for local talent. Luckily for him, he doesn’t have to go too far.
After the high school postseason concludes, the Legion season kicks right off and for Post 81, there is no time to rest.
“We have so many games in a short period of time … it’s a little bit more condensed because the high school schedule was pushed back. There was also restructuring in the league this year, so they changed the schedule a little bit,” Phelps said.
After winning the league in the regular season, Post 81 finished the 2018 summer campaign with a loss in the district semifinals against zone rival, Pittsfield Post 68.
This time around, Phelps is looking to replace five players that have been with the program for multiple years.
“We lost our shortstop, second basemen, pitcher, center fielder, and left fielder … if you look at the stats from last year, those were the guys that carried us to defending zone champions,” Phelps said.
With six new players rising to the senior staff, Phelps is optimistic for a strong season. The skipper comes into the 2019 season with a roster heavily mixed with Frontier Regional School and Greenfield High School varsity players. In fact, 13 of the 18 players on the roster come from those two schools.
“It’s summer ball, it’s up to the commitment they want to make, whether they want to gel together or play the games as individuals and move on,” Phelps said.
The Hampshire League rivals had strong high school seasons. Frontier (19-4 overall) finished its spring season with a loss in the semifinals to Wahconah on Wednesday, and Greenfield (16-6) lost to Southwick in the quarterfinals on Monday. The test for Post 81 is to see how quickly the players can come together.
The pitching staff is loaded from last year’s bullpen with Springfield College freshman/Frontier alumni Ben Arnold and Greenfield’s Owen Phelps looking to handle a bulk of the work. The two will be joined by Greenfield’s Joel Peabody, Frontier’s Kalen Evans, and newcomer Jacob Berry from Mahar in the projected starting rotation.
“It starts with Owen and Ben. Ben is in his fifth year with the program and Owen is in his fifth year in the program,” Phelps said.
Other players on the team that could see mound time are Franklin Tech postgrad Sam Bobala and Eagle Max Charest, Smith Academy’s Michael Bassett, Greenfield’s Hunter Campbell, and Frontier’s Kiernan Freeman, Matt Hildreth, Connor Waitikus, Gabe Gochinski, Garrett DeForest and Corbin Blight.
The infield will face major changes this season as both middle infielders on Phelps’ previous team (Tionne Brown and Eliot Mousseau) have aged out, but the team brings back a strong fielding unit to try and fill the holes.
“With this team, every one of these kids could play each position, so each day could be different,” Phelps said.
Greenfield postgrad Colin Cloutier, DeForest and Bobala will all be vying for time behind the plate. At first base, Freeman and Campbell will take a majority of the time, while Cloutier, Bobala, Arnold, Berry, and Frontier’s Jacob Bryant all could see time there. The two middle infield positions will be split between Hildreth, Phelps, Evans, Charest, Baumann, Arnold, Gochinski, and Bassett. Arnold, Hildreth, Evans, and Peabody will all have time at third base.
Waitikus will man center field after being in right all last season for Post 81. Charest, DeForest, Bassett, Bryant, Evans, Phelps and Peabody will share left and right field.
“Until certain guys establish themselves, we are going to try and rotate them evenly… we are going to throw it down and see what sticks,” said Phelps.
There has been hefty changes within American Legion that have weighed heavily on many coaches. The leagues were restructured over the offseason within the western Massachusetts zone, creating three leagues instead of two. Zone 1-A consists of Post 81, Pittsfield Post 68, Northampton Post 28 and Belchertown Post 239 in the same division. Now to make the playoffs, the top two teams from each league will be chosen and two wild card teams out of the three leagues will get the final bids. The wild card teams are based off of overall win percentages.
“Every game is tough, there are no cupcakes in the league … everyday we are going to have to show up to play,” said the manager.
Although the team opened up against Pittsfield on Thursday night, the real early-season test comes at the 44th Annual Karl “Gubby” Underwood Legion Baseball Tournament June 21-23. Post 81 will travel to Keene, N.H., to battle against several of the top Legion teams in the Northeast.
“I thought that this could be a great chance to get our kids exposure to college scouts and to bigger competition. I am hoping that kind of brings us together … that tournament, I see us playing better teams than we do in the regular season,” Phelps said.
The team keeps the action rolling against Northampton Post 28 at Arcanum Field in Northampton on Saturday at noon.