West Hartford’s American Legion baseball team survived to play another day at the Northeast Regional in New Hampshire on Friday. Trevor Tanis bunted home the winning run in the seventh as Post 96 walked off with a 6-5 win over Portsmouth (N.H.).
Post 96, which lost its opener, has now won two elimination games in a row. West Hartford faces either Hudson, Mass. or Cumberland, R.I. on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Manchester, N.H. The winner goes on to the final, where West Hartford would have to win twice to advance to the Legion World Series in North Carolina next week.
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Trailing 3-0 in the first inning and 4-1 in the fifth, West Hartford took the lead with four in the sixth, on Declan McCann’s two-RBI single, a wild pitch and Chase Hanavalt’s RBI single. Post 96 had 12 hits in the game.
Portsmouth tied it in the top of the seventh, but West Hartford rallied to win. Triston Barron threw six innings in relief to get the victory, allowing only one earned run.
