GREENFIELD — Caleb Thomas pitched like an ace for the Greenfield Post 81 Junior American Legion squad on Tuesday in its District 3 semifinal game against Belchertown Post 239.
Thomas allowed one hit in the first inning but Belchertown didn’t get much going at the plate after that, as Thomas held the visitors to just one hit the rest of the way, striking out eight while only allowing two other batters to reach on walks.
Greenfield got on the board in the second and Thomas helped himself by driving in a run with a double in the third which was all the run support Greenfield would need, as it advanced to the district finals with a 2-0 win at Vets Field.
“After I took a ball off the leg [in the second inning] all that adrenaline kicked in,” Thomas said. “That gave me a bunch of adrenaline and got me angry. The harder the game, the harder I play. If we play an easy team I think I’m going to play terrible but if we’re playing a good team I’m going to play my best.”
Greenfield actually earned an automatic berth into the state tournament with the victory, along with top-seeded and undefeated Pittsfield Post 68, as another team that qualified for states dropped out this week. The teams won’t play a district title game as a result, but will meet in the opening round of the double-elimination state tournament on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Middleboro High School. The entire tournament will be played in Middleboro.
“I’m happy for the kids,” Greenfield coach Alex Siano said. “That’s a really good team we played. You never know in a game like that because you can play really well and lose. Baseball is a funny game. Caleb is a heck of a pitcher and when he’s on the mound we have a shot.”
The loss marked the end of the season for Belchertown. Head coach Dan Szostek said it’s hard to win games with just two hits.
“We couldn’t get the bats going,” Szostek said. “It was a low scoring game. They had a great pitcher. The guys we got on couldn’t get around. That’s baseball. We got a lot of good work in this summer.”
Ethan Maute drew a walk to get on base for Greenfield in the bottom of the second. He stole second before Luca Siano came to the plate and drove a ball to right field.
The ball skipped away from the Belchertown left fielder, allowing Mauthe to cruise in from second and give Greenfield a 1-0 lead.
Greenfield struck again in the third. Jackson Campbell got on with a single and Thomas came up and drilled a shot into the left-center gap that allowed Campbell to use his speed to score from first and give Greenfield a 2-0 lead.
“It was 2-2 in the count so I waited on the curveball,” Thomas said. “I knew he was going to throw it so I waited on it and hit it into the gap.”
Greenfield produced just one more hit in the game — a single from Mauthe in the sixth — but the Belchertown pitching did its job holding the Greenfield lineup down.
Alex West tossed the first five innings for Belchertown, striking out eight and allowing three hits. Ian McDonald pitched the final inning and struck out one.
Chace Earle had Belchertown’s single in the first while Dom Alosi got on base with a base hit in the fifth.
Siano said it’ll take a similar effort to the one he got from his team on Tuesday if his squad wants to keep advancing this summer.
“It’s going to take another game like this,” Siano said. “We’re probably going to have to score a few more runs but I think we can do it. We’ll have to get our bats going. We need to keep playing well on defense and hopefully it works out.”