PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- Evicted from their dugout by a bees’ nest and relegated to the role of “designated visitor” by a coin toss, the Pittsfield Americans made themselves right at home in the batter’s box on Thursday night.

 

Brendan Stannard had two home runs, including a grand slam, and Shane Bernardo and Michael Britten each homered as Pittsfield defeated Holden, 15-2, in the second round of the Section 1 tournament.

 

All that offense coupled with solid pitching from Kieran Coscia, Stannard and Dylan Trova means that the Americans will be able to enjoy a little home cooking on Saturday when they host the championship round of the double-elimination tournament against the winner of Friday’s loser’s bracket finale.

 

Hopefully, by then, both dugouts will be usable. Just before Thursday’s first pitch at Deming Park, the bees’ nest was discovered, forcing the Americans to congregate mostly outside the cinder block structure during the game.

 

“You don’t like to see any kind of distraction minutes before the game starts,” Pittsfield manager Ty Perrault said. “But these kids are the kind of group where they can refocus pretty quickly.

 

“In the first inning, I thought a couple of them weren’t ready in the box. But after that, second inning on, they had much better at-bats.

 

“The bees … we just told the kids to leave them alone and they’d leave them alone.”

 

Holden’s pitching staff was not as lucky.

 

A couple of errors and a couple of wild pitches allowed Pittsfield to tie the game, 1-1, in the top of the second inning.

 

But the hit parade started in the third, when Stannard (4-for-4 with a double and two HRs) socked his first homer to plate Patrick Rindfuss (3-for-3 with a walk and a double).

 

After Kden Codey singled, Bernardo launched a round-tripper to make it 5-1, Pittsfield.

 

The Americans scored 10 runs on eight hits in the fourth to go ahead, 15-1. The highlight was Stannard’s grand slam, but that came only after Rindfuss’ bunt single to load the bases. Britten hit a two-run shot to right-center for Pittsfield’s second homer of the inning as 14 batters came to the plate.

 

Trova gave up a run but left two men stranded in the bottom of the fourth, leaving the Americans with a 13-run margin that ended the game.

 

Holden travels to Leominster on Friday to see who will meet Pittsfield on Saturday. Holden edged Leominster, 8-7, on Thursday evening. Leominster stayed alive Thursday with a 6-3 win over Westfield.

 

If Pittsfield wins Saturday, it will move on to the state tourney. If the Americans lose, they will have to travel to either Holden or Leominster for a winner-take-all final on Sunday.

 

“It’s certainly to your advantage to win the first two games,” Perrault said. “So we like the position we’re in, but also figure the next game is going to be the toughest. [Holden] is a very good team over there. I fully expect them to be here two days from now.

 

“They hit the ball solid. They hit it right at us a few times. They’re a much better team than that [15-2] score. We’ve got some work to do tomorrow, but we’re glad we’re home on Saturday. Hopefully we’ll have a good crowd. The other two teams [Westfield and Leominster] are good too. All the teams are good at this level.”