BRISTOL, Conn. -- Matt Schneider doubled home a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth Thursday morning to lead Pittsfield Post 68 to a 3-2 win over Portland, Maine, at the American Legion Baseball Northeast Regional Championship.

 

Sam Fick scattered 10 hits, walked one and struck out three to earn a complete-game victory for Pittsfield.

 

The win kept Post 68 alive in the double-elimination tournament. On Friday afternoon, it will face host Massachusetts State Champion Shrewsbury.

 

On Thursday, the Mainers jumped out a 1-0 lead in the top of the first and later stretched that lead to 2-0 before Pittsfield got on the board in the bottom of the fifth.

 

Brett Murphy started the inning by being hit by a pitch and moved up when Abdiel Cotto-Hernandez laid down a sacrifice bunt.

 

Chad Shade’s single moved Murphy to third, and he scored Post 68’s first run of the regional tournament on an RBI groundout by Jack Cooney.

 

Cooney started the game-winning rally in the eighth with a single and moved up when Matt Koperniak drew a walk.

 

A passed ball moved both men up a base before the Post 68 catcher and Wahconah graduate doubled to right-center field to give Post 68 the lead.

 

In the top of the ninth, Portland got men to second and third with two out, but Fick got the final out on a called third strike to end the game.