WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Entering the final weekend of the regular season, the White River Junction Post 84 American Legion baseball team needed to merely split Saturday’s doubleheader against Brattleboro Post 5 at Maxfield Sports Complex for a spot in the Vermont state tournament.

That proved far easier said than done.

The visitors handed Post 84 a pair of blowout losses, beating WRJ, 15-4, in a five-inning Game 1 and, 16-6, in Game 2. Post 84 (11-7) finished tied for third place in the Southern Division with Bellows Falls Post 37, which owns the tiebreaker due to having won two of the teams’ three head-to-head meetings. The division will send four teams to the playoffs, but Lakes Region, which finished in last place, qualifies automatically as the tournament host, so only the top three finishers have guaranteed spots.

“I laid it out and told them we had to win at least one to guarantee our spot,” WRJ coach Dylan Spencer said. “We just came out not throwing enough strikes. We gave them too many baserunners, and when you do that against a really good team, it’s hard to come back.”

Zach Johnson, a rising Hartford High junior, started for Post 84 in Game 1 and struggled to find the strike zone. He allowed two runs in the first inning before further unraveling in the second, walking four batters in that frame and giving up four more runs before being relieved. But neither Ethan Marshia nor Justin Robinson, who both play at Thetford Academy, could throw consistent strikes, and Brattleboro continued to extend the lead with four runs in the third and five more in the fourth.

Nate Clark, another incoming junior at Hartford, tripled and singled for WRJ, scoring two runs and driving in one. But Post 5’s early onslaught was far too much to overcome.

“I’m not surprised by how they put those swings together, but when you’re chasing so many runs, it’s hard to put hit-and-run situations, bunt situations, little things that can help you keep manufacturing runs,” Spencer said. “We had to string hits together, and we were able to do it in certain innings, but not consistently enough to keep up with them.”

Post 84 ace Colin Vielleux, who graduated from Hartford this year, got the start in Game 2 and worked a scoreless first inning before Brattleboro began to hit him hard. Post 5 scored four times in the second and seven more in the third, starting that inning with six consecutive hits and eight straight batters reaching base safely.

WRJ scored enough runs to take the game to the full seven innings, with Clark delivering a bases-clearing double in the bottom of the third and Jacob Barry, a 2021 White River Valley graduate, driving in two with a single in the sixth. But again, it was far too little, far too late, and by that time, Bellows Falls had taken the opening game of its doubleheader with Manchester to leave Post 84 on the outside looking in.

“We knew we just needed one, but that’s a tough ask against these guys,” Barry said. “We all struggled. I felt like I was ready for Game 2; we put Game 1 behind us, but it didn’t take long for Game 2 to start going the way Game 1 did.”

Lebanon juniors split; Mierke tosses no-no

LEBANON — Also in a tight battle for a playoff spot, the Lebanon Post 22 junior team split two critical games with Plymouth at Lebanon High on Saturday. Post 22’s playoff fate comes down to a Sunday makeup game at first-place Keene.

Freddie Mierke, a rising junior at Hanover High, threw a no-hitter in Lebanon’s 2-0 win in Game 1, walking two and striking out five in the 77-pitch effort. Incoming Lebanon High junior Bennett Hewett delivered a key RBI single.

Post 22 (9-7) trailed by four runs in the sixth inning of Game 2 and sent it to extra innings with a three-run seventh, but Plymouth pulled ahead in the ninth to win, 6-4. Nicholas Brill, another incoming junior at Lebanon, took the hard-luck loss after allowing two unearned runs.

Lebanon is in third place entering Sunday, a half-game ahead of Plymouth and Nashua, but would lose the tiebreaker to both and thus needs Sunday’s game.

Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.

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