PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- On a night when very little was working for the American Legion Post 68 baseball team, a little patience went a long way for Jack Cooney.

 

Cooney crushed a base hit into left center with two out in the bottom of the eighth Monday to score Izaiya Mestre and give Pittsfield a 4-3 win over Aldenville and back-to-back Western Massachusetts championships.

 

“I was looking for a fastball,” Cooney said after the obligatory dousing with ice water. “He threw me a couple of curve balls to start me off. I laid off those, and I got up in the count. I knew he was going to give me a fastball, so I just sat back on it and tried not to be too anxious.”

 

There were plenty of anxious moments on Monday for Post 68, which fell behind, 3-2, in the top of the sixth inning but rallied back to tie it on Abdiel Cotto-Hernandez’ two-out RBI single in the bottom of the inning.

 

The game-winning rally started when Patrick Colvin drew a one-out walk. Mestre tried to bunt him over, but Aldenville’s pitcher was quick to the ball and wheeled to catch Colvin at second.

 

Post 68 caught a break when an infield error allowed Cotto-Hernandez to keep the inning going, and Chad Shade followed with an infield single, loading the bases and bringing Cooney to the dish.

 

“We just kept fighting and fighting,” Cooney said. “I knew I was going to get a chance. My teammates did their job getting on base. I just put a good swing on it, and that was it.”

 

Pittsfield finished the double-elimination tournament without a loss. After outscoring its first four opponents by a combined 40-3, Post 68 faced its first real adversity on Monday night.

 

Things started out well when Simon Nassif drove a 3-2 pitch deep to center field to score Cooney and Matt Schneider in the bottom of the first.

 

But the score stayed 2-0 through the middle innings as Pittsfield stranded six runners and had men thrown out at second base and home plate.

 

Aldenville finally made the home team pay in the top of the sixth, using a single, an error and a double to score one run and a Will Kennedy homer over the right-center fence to make it 3-2.

 

Jake Flynn came in from the bullpen at that point to spell Sam Fick, who allowed just one run and struck out four over the first five innings.

 

Flynn was unhittable in 2-⅓ inning of work to pick up the win.

 

“Flynn pitched lights out,” Post 68 coach Pat Bassi said. “He made some great pitches against a very good team. They’re a very good hitting team, a very smart team. You can’t make any mistakes against them.

 

“[Sam] Fick pitched well, too. He really only made one bad pitch, and they made him pay for it.”

 

After Flynn recorded the final out to end the top of the sixth, Post 68 bounced right back.

 

Shane Tierney got things started with a base hit up the middle. Colvin bunted him into scoring position, and he went to third on a Mestre ground ball.

 

Cotto-Hernandez came up with two out and delivered a Texas Leaguer into right field to make it 3-3.

 

Neither team was able to get a man on base in the seventh.

 

In the top of the eighth, Flynn surrendered a two-out walk but then got the third out on a ground ball to first.

 

Bassi said he never doubted that his ballclub would be able to respond after surrendering a lead and falling behind in the sixth inning.

 

“They’ve been there before,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of blowouts, but they know what has to be done. They’re a resilient group, and they did what they had to do.

 

“This Aldenville team, we’ve played them four times the last two years. They beat us, 1-0. We beat them, 4-2, we beat ‘em, 3-2, and we beat ‘em, 4-3. They always play us tough. They know our style of ball. Their pitcher is very athletic, and they take away a lot of our game.

 

“It’s like playing a mirror image of yourself.”