{"id":754839,"date":"2026-07-18T06:59:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T06:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/754839\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T06:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T06:59:14","slug":"legion-baseball-james-lavalle-tosses-two-hitter-as-northampton-post-28-advances-in-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/754839\/","title":{"rendered":"Legion baseball: James Lavalle tosses two-hitter as Northampton Post 28 advances in playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

FLORENCE \u2014 Make it seven straight wins for the Northampton Legion Post 28 baseball team following its 7-1 victory over Belchertown Post 239 at Arcanum Field on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

After falling behind 1-0 during the top of the second inning, Northampton scored seven unanswered runs to advance in the winners bracket of the District 3 playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played a really good baseball game and that\u2019s a really good team,\u201d Post 28 head coach Adam Krol said. \u201cBelchertown has great coaches, great players, great pedigree\u2026we played our game and I\u2019m very proud of the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Northampton pitcher James Lavalle was electric from the mound as the lefty tossed a complete game two-hitter, fanning 10 Post 239 batters along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was looking for early strikes and they were making contact,\u201d Lavalle said. \u201cGround balls, pop-outs, that\u2019s all you can ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Northampton Post 28\u2019s James Lavalle pitches the ball during the District 3 playoff baseball game against Belchertown Post 239 at Arcanum Field in Northampton, Thursday, July 16, 2026. DANIEL JACOBI II \/ Staff Photo<\/p>\n

Lavalle totaled 99 pitches in the victory and had just three walks to his name.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was locked-in the moment that he got here pre-game and that\u2019s what I expect of him,\u201d Krol said of Lavalle. \u201cHe\u2019s one of our captains and one of our leaders. He pitched to his ability and I could not be more proud of him. We needed that, that\u2019s how you\u2019re a leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

Post 28 began its comeback during the bottom of the third inning with a two-RBI double from Andrew Gagne. Minutes later, Northampton doubled its lead to 4-1 with a two-run home run that clipped the overhanging branches in left field and was thus ruled a four-bagger.<\/p>\n

Aiden Keeling-Lococo cracked the homer that put the hosts in front by three runs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was looking for an up-and-in pitch and he threw it right there,\u201d Keeling-Lococo said. \u201cI was able to get my barrel around to it so overall it was a good swing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like putting the ball in play, I like getting us going,\u201d Keeling-Lococo added.<\/p>\n

\"\"Northampton Post 28\u2019s Aiden Keeling-Lococo hits the ball during the District 3 playoff baseball game against Belchertown Post 239 at Arcanum Field in Northampton, Thursday, July 16, 2026. DANIEL JACOBI II \/ Staff Photo<\/p>\n

Northampton\u2019s No. 2 concluded the contest 1-for-3 with two RBIs from the plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great talent,\u201d Krol said. \u201cHe had a great swing, a lot of our guys were on time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Post 28 brought home two more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to push its lead to 6-1, before a RBI double by Matt Walko in the bottom of the sixth made it 7-1.<\/p>\n

Belchertown did not have the same fortune on the bump as it cycled through four pitchers in this one. Brodie Funk started for Post 239 and gave up four runs and three hits in two innings with one strikeout.<\/p>\n

Ryan Gould and Josh Misiaszek earned hits for Post 239, which moves to the brink of elimination in the losers bracket. The two-time defending District 3 champions must win out moving forward to keep its season alive.<\/p>\n

\"\"Belchertown Post 239\u2019s Joshua Misiaszek looks to the ball toward first base during the District 3 playoff baseball game against Northampton Post 28 at Arcanum Field in Northampton, Thursday, July 16, 2026. DANIEL JACOBI II \/ Staff Photo<\/p>\n

Northampton, on the other hand, is playing its best baseball at the perfect time of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took care of business today, that\u2019s just how it is,\u201d Krol said. \u201cIf we keep playing our style of baseball and play to our abilities we\u2019re going to keep rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victors recorded six hits with Gagne and Matt Vassallo each pocketing multi-hit performances for Post 28.<\/p>\n

Both Northampton and Belchertown will play next on Saturday morning, with Post 28 hosting an opponent to be determined.<\/p>\n

\"\"Belchertown Post 239\u2019s Brodie Funk pitches the ball during the District 3 playoff baseball game against Northampton Post 28 at Arcanum Field in Northampton, Thursday, July 16, 2026. DANIEL JACOBI II \/ Staff Photo\"\"Belchertown Post 239\u2019s Joshua Misiaszek fields the ball during the District 3 playoff baseball game against Northampton Post 28 at Arcanum Field in Northampton, Thursday, July 16, 2026. DANIEL JACOBI II \/ Staff Photo\"\"Northampton Post 28\u2019s Andrew Gagne looks to catch a fly ball during the District 3 playoff baseball game against Belchertown Post 239 at Arcanum Field in Northampton, Thursday, July 16, 2026. DANIEL JACOBI II \/ Staff Photo\"\"Belchertown Post 239\u2019s Ian McDonald fields the ball during the District 3 playoff baseball game against Northampton Post 28 at Arcanum Field in Northampton, Thursday, July 16, 2026. DANIEL JACOBI II \/ Staff Photo\"\"Northampton Post 28\u2019s Matt Vassallo runs toward home base during the District 3 playoff baseball game against Belchertown Post 239 at Arcanum Field in Northampton, Thursday, July 16, 2026. DANIEL JACOBI II \/ Staff Photo\"\"Belchertown Post 239\u2019s Brodie Funk looks to catch a fly ball during the District 3 playoff baseball game against Northampton Post 28 at Arcanum Field in Northampton, Thursday, July 16, 2026. DANIEL JACOBI II \/ Staff Photo\"\"Belchertown Post 239\u2019s Brodie Funk pitches the ball during the District 3 playoff baseball game against Northampton Post 28 at Arcanum Field in Northampton, Thursday, July 16, 2026. DANIEL JACOBI II \/ Staff Photo\"\"Belchertown Post 239\u2019s Ryan Gould hits the ball during the District 3 playoff baseball game against Northampton Post 28 at Arcanum Field in Northampton, Thursday, July 16, 2026. DANIEL JACOBI II \/ Staff Photo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FLORENCE \u2014 Make it seven straight wins for the Northampton Legion Post 28 baseball team following its 7-1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,3622,16979,2328,2304,4,2305,2303,90163],"class_list":["post-754839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-baseball","tag-latest-news","tag-legion-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-northampton-ma"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116939690467310063","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}