By STEVE MAZZONE

Sports writer

WARWICK – Eleven of his players were left on base, seven of them in scoring position.
Hurd/Post 14 manager Jim Dawber had a simple explanation when describing his top-seeded squad’s second-round 5-4 loss to Shields Post 43 in Monday’s American Legion playoff game at Ray Pepin Field
“The headline of this game is a simple platform,” he said. “They played better today. They deserved to win when the game could have gone either way many, many times had we just been a little more fortunate.”
Hurd and Shields each belted out 10 hits in the contest, which was switched to the Bishop Hendricken field due to water problems at Chet Nichols Field. Shields, a No. 8 seed, did most of its damage early. The Warwick-based squad (14-9) had five of its hits in the first three innings off starter John Kasmanian and took a 4-0 advantage. Post 43 scored three of those runs in the second inning with the big blow coming off the bat of John Razzino with his two-run triple.
“John Razzino got us off to a good start,” said Shields’ manager Jim Foster. “We scored there and got three quick runs and I’m sure it helped their confidence. I mean these guys (Hurd) were the best team in the league all year. That gave them a boost of confidence with three quick runs.”
Post 14 (19-3) was able to get a run back in the bottom of the third on an RBI single from Joe Landi. But until it was able to generate a rally in the closing innings to eventually tie the game at 4 in the eighth, Hurd could not get its offense going even though it threatened in just about every frame.
“It was really frustrating,” Dawber said. “Really, in terms of the play, it was very even. I think it was only a two-hit differential throughout the whole game. They just got a couple of hits when they had men on base. It was sort of a frustrating, discouraging game because we were knocking on the door, it cracked open a couple of times, but it really didn’t burst through.”
Most of Hurd’s frustration could be attributed to Shields starter Norman Gaines. Until tiring in the eighth with a high-pitch count (113), the left-handed Gaines was consistent in keeping the Post 14 bats at bay. After getting out of a first-inning jam, the Cranston East product seemed to get stronger and stronger as the game progressed.
Before he was taken out in the eight after giving up a leadoff home run to substitute Jordan DaCruz, Gaines struck out seven and had all but two of his remaining outs off of grounders.
“He’s like our four or five pitcher,” Foster said. “That was a big boost for him to do this for us.”
“He was outstanding,” commented Dawber. “He was outstanding. I never really heard about him or heard of him, but he was a warrior.”
Perhaps the first inning was an omen of things to come for Post 14. The Cumberland squad was able to get its first two players on base when Gaines gave up back-to-back walks to Landi and Ryan O’Dell.  Hurd came out of the inning empty-handed, though. Shields leftfielder Matt Langevin made a running diving catch on Dean Beshansky’s hard hit ball and then Jeff Buress followed by hitting into a 6-4-3 double play.
Kasmanian had a 1-2-3 inning in the first, but ran into some trouble in the next inning. He gave up three straight hits, including Razzino’s productive two-bagger. Kevin Stenhouse would increase the cushion to 4-0 with his RBI single in the third.
As expected, Post 14 didn’t let the game get out of hand. It just took longer than expected. Landi put Hurd on the board in the bottom of the third with his single. The next three innings Post 14 had its share of runners on the base, but couldn’t produce another run  until then seventh when Ryan Silva was able to connect on a two-out, RBI single.
Post 14 was finally able to break Gaines in the eighth when DaCruz blasted his leadoff homer over the centerfield fence to get his teammates within a run.  Hurd tied the game shortly after. Matt Sorkin followed DaCruz’s dinger with a single off reliever Pat Lavey and then Landi got on base when he hit the ball to the mound and Lavey overthrew ball to first.
With runners on first and second, Hurd knotted the score in the inning when O’Dell hit a grounder to shortstop Sam Sager. Sager rifled the ball to home to get Landi out, however, catcher Dan McGuirl enabled Post 14 to tie the score when he tried to get Landi out a third on the play but threw the ball over the head of third baseman Jeremy Ladas to allow Landi to score.
Kasmanian was taken out of the game after the eighth inning and replaced by O’Dell. Sager greeted the relief pitcher with a leadoff triple in the ninth and Stenhouse was hit with a pitch. With runners at first and third, Mike Nadiger drove in the eventual game-winner with a sacrifice fly to centerfield.
The two teams with resume their best-of-3 series tonight at 5 at the Mickey Stevens Sports Complex in Warwick. Dawber, whose Post 14 team swept by East Bay Post 8 in the opening round, promises a different squad will show up.
“We are winning the series,” he promised. “We just didn’t win this first game. It’s a three-game series for a reason. We’ll be ready to go tomorrow and they’ll see the faces of a hurt but proud and defiant group of champions. That’s the profile that they are going to be facing tomorrow.”
***
Shields Post 43         031 000 001 – 5 10 4
Hurd/Post 14        001 000 120 – 4 10 2
Norman Gaines, Pat Lavey (8) and Dan McGuirl. John Kasmanian, Ryan O’Dell (9) and Ryan Silva. 2B – SP, McGuirl. 3B – SP, John Razziano, Same Sager. HR – HP, Jordan DaCruz.