Sheffield Post 340 Falls in State Legion Tourney Opener
WILBRAHAM, Mass. -- North Attleborough's Justin Neidel hit a ground-rule double down the right field line to give his team a 13-3 walkoff win over Sheffield Post 340 on Saturday at the American Legion Junior Baseball State Tournament.
But Sheffield will be ready to walk back into the thick of things on Sunday at Spec Pond in an elimination game in the eight-team tourney.
"If this was a normal game and not a tournament, we had two other guys who were pitchers who could have come in and kept it closer," Sheffield coach Jesse Carpenter said. "But we had to keep two guys for tomorrow."
Sheffield, which just finished its Western Mass tournament on Thursday to qualify for the state championship, was further hampered on Saturday by the absence of a few of its players who will rejoin the club in the next day or two, Carpenter said.
"The guys we had [available] to pitch are real pitchers, but you couldn't burn them all out today, because then what do you do tomorrow?" he said. "It's not like all 14 guys on our roster are pitchers. We got four guys, maybe five, who don't pitch at all. So that makes it tough."
Saturday's starter, Lee High's Lucas Bombardier, is a regular pitcher and did do a good job through two-plus innings, allowing just a couple of runs.
But Carpenter said the Sheffield bench saw signs of wildness in the starter, who walked five, and opted to preserve his pitches rather than running up his count on day one of the double-elimination tournament.
Kenneth Zucco, Marco Buffoni and Cooper Shepardson combined to throw the last 3-1/3.
The game ended on Neidel's double to cap a seven-run fifth inning with one out in the frame.
After North Attleborough broke the seal on the game with a Neidel RBI triple in the top of the second, Sheffield tied it in the top of the third.
Buffoni led off the inning with a single up the middle, went to third on Shepardson's infield single and an error and scored on an RBI groundout by John Fielding.
Post 49 answered with a run in the bottom of the third to retake the lead and scored four in the fourth to go ahead, 6-1.
Sheffield rallied to get back into it with a pair of runs in the fifth.
Shepardson started things off by legging out a one-out infield single. After Luke Patella drew a walk, North Attleborough reliever Daniel Curran (three strikeouts) got the second out. But Jack Carpenter singled to score Shepardson, and Joshua Hunter singled to score Patella.
"For us as coaches, we're proud of the kids, because the score is 6-1, and we battle to get two runs," Jesse Carpenter said. "It wasn't an easy strike zone today, so some of the swings you saw us have with two strikes, the guys knew they were going to get punched out. So they did everything they could to put the ball in play.
"And, you know, at 6-3, we were right where we want to be. But it is what it is without your arms all ready to go."
North Attleborough took advantage of four walks in its seven-run fifth. It also got a two-run double from John Connoly ahead of Neidel's double to end it.
Sheffield plays in Sunday's elimination game at 1 p.m. against either Lynn Post 291 or Wilbraham Post 286, who met in Saturday's late game.
