The state champion Trenton Acadians advanced into the winners bracket game at the Northeast American Senior Legion Regional at Fitton Field on the Holy Cross College campus in Worcester, Massachusetts, on Thursday.
Trenton overcame a 6-0 deficit to rally past Massachusetts titlist Franklin 14-8.
The Acadians, who erupted for nine runs in the fifth inning, are now 2-0 and will take on another 2-0 team, either Essex, Vermont, or Cumberland, Rhode Island, in Friday afternoon’s winners bracket contest.
Essex and Cumberland played the late game on Thursday.
The winners bracket game was originally scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday but all three scheduled games have been moved up due to the threat of inclement weather. The game will now be played around 2:30 p.m.
Franklin will play New York champs Greece on Friday morning at 9 a.m. and Nashua, New Hampshire, will play the loser of the Essex-Cumberland game right after that ahead of the winners bracket contest.
The first two are elimination games in the eight-team, double-elimination tournament.
The Acadians trailed 8-5 entering the fifth inning of the seven-inning affair but took a 9-8 lead on an error, Colin Sullivan’s single, a sacrifice bunt, and consecutive walks to Dawson Curtis, Joey Clouse, Brett Bragdon, Wyatt Bragdon and Hunter Curtis.
An error produced another run before Peter Keblinsky hit a three-run double and Sullivan tripled him home to cap the rally.
Dawson Curtis’ three-run triple highlighted a five-run third-inning rally that pulled the Acadians within 6-5.
Sullivan surrendered six runs in two innings of work but the Curtis brothers, Dawson and Hunter, limited Franklin to three hits and two runs the rest of the way.
Dawson Curtis pitched three innings of three-hit, two-run ball before older brother Hunter tossed two innings of no-hit shutout relief.
Keblinsky paced the Acadians at the plate with three hits, including his crucial double, three runs batted in and three runs scored. He now has five hits in their two wins.
Dawson Curtis and Sullivan each had a triple and a single and combined to drive in five runs. Clouse had a single and two RBIs.
Dominic Caccavelli doubled and singled for Franklin and knocked in a run. Luke Sidwell had a pair of singles, Tyler Bellan had a single and two RBIs and Brendan Sencaj had a double and an RBI.
“This was our biggest comeback of the year,” said Trenton coach Brad Smith. “These boys don’t quit. They came here to play and they want everybody to know that.”
Smith said he told his team after the first inning not to get their heads down.
“I said, keep playing our game and find the barrel of the bat. They had good at-bats and that’s exactly what they did. They made [Franklin] make mistakes and we capitalized at big moments.”
Franklin committed four errors while Trenton played errorless ball.
“Our defense has been fantastic,” Smith said.
He also said Keblinsky has been seeing the ball well and “when they throw him fastballs, he doesn’t miss it.”
Each team issued eight walks.