The Wanderers won its best-of-three semifinal series against Northampton Legion after losing Game 1, 6-5, on July 10, and coming back to take Game 2, 10-0, on July 11, and Game 3, 11-1, on July 12.

“It’s been like the Red Sox and the Yankees for as long as I’ve coached here. It’s usually in the championship; not in the semifinals, but we’re on two opposite sides of the bracket this time,” said The Wanderers manager Paul Walsh. “Our last three playoff series, we lost the first game and then won the next two, so they know that they’re not out of it after that first game. They believe in each other, and to be honest with you, they don’t want to stop playing with each other.”

In Game 3, The Wanderers struck first with Jacob Strong’s RBI single to right field.

“The first day, we didn’t really have it all together, we were struggling a little bit, we didn’t have everyone, but the last two days, we really got it together and played some good baseball,” Strong said. “All that was in my mind was I just gotta score this run. I gotta get my teammate (Colin Peacock) across. I shortened up and hit it the other way to score that run. It hopped over the first baseman’s glove and went into right field.”

Northampton evened the score with Billy Stuhldreher’s sacrifice fly.

In the top of the third inning, Jaxon Horvath looked at two strikes before belting a 2 RBI single to left center field.

“They weren’t the pitches I was expecting, so, 0-2, I got down on my two-strike approach, and I was like, if anything happens, I’ve just got to put this somewhere,” Horvath said. “The pitcher hung it a little bit, so it was a little easy for me to adjust. I believe it was three straight curveballs, so I saw the same exact spin two pitches before, and it was easy to read. I got the bat around, and I’m happy I was able to do that.”

The Wanderers added another run in the fourth inning on Jackson Donatelli’s RBI to short left center that scored Jacob Matthews.

Pitcher Kyle Brandt shut down Northampton’s offense in the next three innings, retiring nine straight batters.

“When I was in the bullpen, I didn’t feel great, but as the game went on, I kept getting better and better. Power hitters with my fastball, really used my slider and was throwing it for a strike today, and that really leads to my success on the mound, just pounding the zone,” said Brandt, who tossed 5 strikeouts and gave up 3 hits.

“Kam (Kensicki) caught a great game today. He caught a great game. I worked with him in high school season, and I really didn’t pitch good...but summer’s been around and I feel great right now, and Kam just read me the whole game. He caught an amazing game. When I wanted to throw a slider, he called it. If I wanted to throw a fastball, he called it.”

Northampton ran into trouble in the top of the fifth inning when The Wanderers scored on four walked-in runs.

In the top of the sixth, The Wanderers loaded the bases, and put the game in mercy rule with three more runs.

The Wanderers ended the game on a double play from shortstop Willie Cruz to first baseman Matthews.

As of Press deadlines, The Wanderers and Nazareth Summer Legion-Post 415 are tied, 1-1, in a best of three final, and The Wanderers have won the NorCo Division championship for the last two years.

“A three-peat is hard,” said Walsh. “I think that we’re hitting right now, which is key, and I do think that we have, because of the way that Drew (Erfle) and Kyle pitched, we mercy-ruled, so we have rested guys, but as long as we throw strikes, I think we’ll be in these games.”