After a busy weekend with four games in three days up in Keene that took its toll on the pitching staff, Greenfield Post 81 was in the market for a shutdown performance on Monday night.
Enter Joel Peabody.
The Greenfield native gave his bullpen a restful evening, striking out six over seven innings in a 94-pitch complete-game effort to lift Post 81 to a 5-0 victory over Aldenville Post 337 in American Legion Senior Division action at Vets Field.
“Good, solid pitching, timely hitting and the defense was phenomenal,” Post 81 coach Bill Phelps said of the team’s performance.
Peabody got stronger as the night went along for Greenfield (3-1), striking out four of the final six batters he faced to nail down the shutout.
Post 81, which won its third league game in a row after dropping its opener against Pittsfield, pushed three runs across in the bottom of the second inning to take an early lead. Garrett DeForest, who had two hits on the night, drove an RBI single to get Post 81 on the board, and Owen Phelps followed with a two-run single to make it a 3-0 game.
It stayed that way until the fifth. Connor Waitkus doubled and Hunter Campbell followed with another double, plating Waitkus for a 4-0 advantage. Campbell would eventually score on a wild pitch to equate for the 5-0 final.
Phelps lauded the defensive work up the middle of Bryan Baumann and Owen Phelps, as the team backed Peabody en route to the shutout.
Next up for Greenfield is an away game Wednesday night at Wilbraham Blue, before the team comes home Thursday night to play Wilbraham Red.