After falling in their respective winner’s bracket games Wednesday and Thursday, the two top seeds split their final consolation bracket the day prior to Championship Saturday.
In the Dan Welch City Cup, No. 1 Sons of Erin fell behind early, but used a five-run fourth inning and a three-run fifth inning to defeat No. 4 Westfield Police to force a rematch with No. 3 McDonald’s Saturday night. The Amanti Cup final will feature No. 2 ITI in a rematch with their first-round opponent, No. 3 Kiwanis Club, who used another eight-run outburst to upset No. 1 Berkshire Insurance Group, 22-7, in six innings.
Sons fell behind 3-0 after two innings, when Police used four hits and a couple of walks to jump in front of starting pitcher Kyle Roberts. Cam Niemiec earned the victory and shut down the Police offense, who mustered two hits after the second inning.
Zach Medeiros and Aidan Dunn both hit two-run singles to pull the Sons within a run and take the lead in the fourth inning, while Ryan Moorhouse’s walk drove in the game-tying run to spark the Sons of Erin offense. The green and gold will face McDonald’s in the nightcap Saturday at 7 p.m., trying to avenge the 5-1 loss Wednesday night and force an if necessary game Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Amanti Cup’s top seed could not bounce back from a Thursday loss and fell in the final consolation bracket game Friday, falling to No. 3 Kiwanis Club in six innings.
Similar to their game Thursday, Kiwanis used an eight-run inning to break open the game and stay in front. After the two teams battled in a close game after three innings, six straight batters in the Kiwanis lineup each drove in a run en route to a 16-5 score after three and a half innings.
Every Kiwanis batter reached at least once during the 22-run, 16-hit barrage, while nine batters recorded at least one hit for the visitors. Sam Parker and Will Cameron led Kiwanis with three RBIs and five more batters drove in a pair of runs each to back starting pitcher Colton Baker, who pitched five innings for the win.
Kiwanis will also play in a rematch Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m., when they will face No. 2 ITI, who defeated the No. 3 seed all four times during the regular season and an additional time in the first round of the postseason.
