WILBRAHAM — Things went south for Greenfield Post 81 during the bottom of the sixth inning of its American Legion Senior Division District 1 tournament quarterfinal against Wilbraham Post 286 on Monday. 

It was Post 81 that entered the bottom of the sixth with all the momentum after Cayden Payne laid down a bunt that scored Luc Belhumeur from third, tying the game 3-3. 

Greenfield’s Tyler Podolski — who tossed the first five innings and gave up just two hits — was relieved going into the sixth and the Wilbraham bats came to life, with the first 10 batters of the frame reaching base. Eight of those runners went on to score, with Wilbraham pulling away with an 11-3 victory to knock Post 81 out of the tournament. 

Wilbraham advanced to face Belchertown in the semis on Tuesday.

“I don’t look at it like it was just one bad inning,” Post 81 skipper Julian Diamond said. “We had an error early on that they scored two runs off of. Those runs early on hurt us as well. Ultimately that sixth inning hurt. It wasn’t just one error that did us in.” 

Wilbraham’s Vinny Chirazio opened the bottom of the sixth with a base hit off Greenfield reliever Ian Simpson. He stole second and beat a throw to third off a ground ball in the infield to put runners on first and third with no outs. 

Nick Burns walked to load the bases and Ben Langone drew a second consecutive walk to score Chirazio and give Wilbraham a 4-3 lead. 

The runs kept coming from there. Mike Nordstrom cracked a single that scored a pair before Liam Skribiski-Banack came on to relieve Simpson. 

Tim Harrigan grounded into a fielder’s choice bef0re three straight walks allowed two more runs to cross, giving Wilbraham an 8-3 lead. MJ Paulin came on to pitch for Greenfield when Chirazio cracked a single that brought in two more runs. 

Gavin cracked a sacrifice fly before Paulin got the final two outs of the inning, but the damage had already been done. Post 81 went three and out in the seventh to end the game. 

Podolski brought his best stuff for Greenfield, striking out 10 and walking four in those five innings on the hill. 

“Pod pitched phenomenal,” Diamond said. “There’s no other way to put it. This was the best he’s looked all season. It’s too bad we weren’t able to get it done behind him.” 

Wilbraham took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second. Chirazio got on with a walk and Burns reached on an error. Langone cracked a single to center and the throw home to get Chirazio was offline, allowing Langone to score from first in the process to give Wilbraham a two-run lead. 

Post 81 responded in the third. John Marchefka got on with a base hit and Tyler Baranowski moved him to third on a single of his own. Baranowski was thrown out trying to take second. 

Jason Quinn came to the plate and grounded the ball to short, but the throw to first was offline, allowing Marchefka to score and cut the lead to 2-1. 

Greenfield tied things up in the top of the fifth. Baranowski blasted a double and Quinn knocked him in with a base hit to left field to tie the game 2-2.

Wilbraham regained the lead in the bottom of the frame. Harrigan got on with a walk, stole second, moved to third on a ground ball and scored on a balk. 

Simpson reached with a single to open the top of the sixth for Post 81. Belhumeur came on as a pinch runner and made it over to third on an error after a throw to get him at second following a Skribiski-Banack grounder to short ended up in center field. 

With runners on second and third, Payne laid down a perfectly placed bunt up the middle, with Belhumeur using his speed to make it home just before Chirazio’s tag came down, knotting the game at three. 

It wasn’t the ending Post 81 had hoped for, but Diamond said the team will be better for it in the long run by learning from their mistakes. 

“We have some things to work on for next season,” Diamond said. “We have some things we need to do differently. Given the circumstances we had to try to do things differently. Ultimately we found out what worked and what didn’t. We’ll be back to the usual Post 81 next year.” 

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