Swampscott Ends Pittsfield Post 68's State Tourney Run
ROCHESTER, Mass. – After losing the first game of their trip to the American League State Championship tournament, the Pittsfield Post 68 Juniors battled to stay alive.
After inclement weather on Tuesday forced the postponement of its game and raised the specter that their tournament experience would end prematurely, Post 68 fought to get on the field.
After Swampscott scored five runs in the bottom of the second inning to take a four-run lead, Pittsfield battled back to tie Wednesday’s game.
But the Post 57 Mariners managed to push a run across with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth and worked around a one-out error in the top of the seventh to earn a 6-5 victory.
“These boys don’t give up,” Pittsfield coach Kristoffer Roberts said. “They’ve shown no quit all season long, even things got down, they’re ready to play.
“And they fought. They fought to the end. I couldn’t be more proud of the guys.”
Connor Kirchner went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs, Gavin O’Donnell tripled in a pair of runs, and Matt Egan struck out seven in 5 and one-third innings on the mound for Pittsfield, which finished the tournament with a record of 2-2 – both losses by two runs or fewer.
Pittsfield struck first on Wednesday afternoon.
Ethan O’Donnell gave the team its first base runner when he worked a one-out walk in the top of the second.
Devin Reynolds followed with a walk, and Kirchner drove in the game’s first run with a single to center field.
The lead did not last long.
Swampscott generated three hits – the biggest a two-run single from starting pitcher and leadoff hitter Nick Berube – to score five times in the bottom of the second.
Egan retired the next three hitters to limit the damage, and his offense rewarded him with a couple of runs without the benefit of a base hit in the top of the second.
Jason Codey and Connor Devine each walked and scored – the former on an errant throw down to third and the latter on a wild pitch that went halfway up the third base line – to make it 5-3.
One inning later, Reynolds drew a leadoff walk, and Kirchner singled down the left field line to set the table, and Gavin O’Donnell hit a two-out blast deep to left center to tie the game.
But Swampscott reliever David Palmer, after giving up the triple to O’Donnell, held Pittsfield’s offense at bay the rest of the way.
Post 68 got just one baserunner – a two-out walk – in the fifth and sixth innings.
And in the seventh, Codey reached on a two-base error with one out, but he was erased on a ground ball to the left side when Swampscott’s shortstop threw to third for a bang-bang tag play.
By that point, Swampscott was working with a one-run lead.
In the bottom of the sixth, Connor Charello led off with a single up the middle for the Mariners, and a couple of walks loaded the bases with one out before Caden Ross lifted the ball deep enough off reliever Gavin O’Donnell to get Charello home from third, making it 6-5.
Pittsfield Post 68 finishes the season with a record of 18-4. It fell a little short of repeating as state champion in the Juniors division but showed plenty of fight along the way.
“There was some talk of possibly not playing this game,” Roberts said. “We were really pushing the tournament directors that we wanted to play. At one point, it was communicated to us that it was impossible for us to get the championship, and I disagreed. And I pushed for us to play.
“We spent thousands of dollars to be here for this weekend, and I was damn sure going to make sure we played today. So we did, and I think we represented our team well.”
