PITTSFIELD, Mass. - The Post 68 American Legion Baseball team earned a spot in state tournament play this weekend with a 4-1 win over Aldenville Post 337 on Monday at Clapp Park.

 

The win was the second baseball championship for the city on Monday; earlier in the day, the 15-year-old Babe Ruth team won a championship title at Deming Field.

 

Post 68 started out strong in the first inning when Kevin Donatti sent one to center field to score Chad Shade, giving the team a quick 1-0 lead.

 

Pittsfield added two more in the second inning with RBI singles from Ryan Grande and Andrew Winston, putting them ahead 3-0.

 

Mitch Clary brought in Pittsfield's final run with and RBI double, plating Dom Traversa in the third.

 

Aldenville Post 337 retired the next eight batters and then threw out Grande, who had Pittsfield's first hit since the third inning, after an attempt to steal second in the sixth inning.

 

Pittsfield's Steven Witkowski was replaced on the mound by Alex Carussotto in the seventh inning after walking two with one out. Aldenville was able to score one run off a hit by Mitch Wroth with two outs.

 

Anthony Jones ended the inning for Post 68, snaring a ground ball and tagging third base to secure the title for Pittsfield.

 

"It's a pretty good feeling; the kids worked really hard," Post 68 coach Pat Bassi said. "Steve pitched a great game and we got a couple of key hits in the beginning of the game. We just played our usual Post 68 baseball."

 

Witkowski pitched 6-1/3 innings, striking out two, before Carussotto took over on the mound.

 

"Steve had thrown about 100 pitches and was pretty much cooked," Bassi said. "I wasn't going to take any chances with someone like Carusotto on the bench, so he came in and finished it off."

 

Pittsfield will travel to Haverhill on Saturday; the game time and opponent is to be determined.