NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton Post 28 American Legion baseball team has got a good thing going.

Winners of four out of its last five games following Tuesday’s 3-2 victory over West Springfield at Arcanum Field, Northampton sits among the top half of the District 3 standings. At 6-2, Post 28 is already more than halfway toward reaching its win total from 2024 when it went 11-5-1.

What should make head coach Adam Krol even more encouraged is the fact that Northampton has found numerous ways to pull out the ‘W.’

“The truth is no two games are the same,” Krol said. “We’ve won games where we’ve put up a lot of runs and we’ve played gritty games like [Tuesday]. That was a great team we played. Their pitcher shoved, he pitched very, very well. We just keep finding ways. The guys don’t give up, we know wherever we are in the order, [we’re] going to produce.”

Tuesday, Post 28 overcame an early 2-0 deficit and plated all three of its runs during the bottom of the third. Trey Kuzmeski’s two-run triple highlighted the scoring plays for Northampton. Matt Vassallo also brought in a run with a sacrifice fly as Post 28 got all its business done in the opening stages of the contest.

A gutsy performance from Harry LaFlamme on the bump kept West Springfield’s bats mostly in check. LaFlamme gave up seven hits for two runs, but struck out three and walked just one batter in five plus innings of work, before the game was called off due to darkness during the sixth inning.

“Harry LaFlamme pitched unbelievably,” Krol said. “These were really tough conditions. One, we didn’t know when the game was going to start, it started 25 minutes late. We had sporadic thunder, rain and he found a way to keep going and put together five really strong innings. He stepped up today, he was the player of the game, he had a really strong game.”

Post 28 had a similarly tight battle with Greenfield Post 81 last Friday and came out on the right side of that one, winning 3-1. Earlier that same week, the squad drubbed North Adams Post 125, 12-2.

Krol credited his three captains in James Lavallee, Liam Flynn and Kuzmeski with bringing the base-knocks from the plate, while Aiden Keeling-Lococo and Vassallo have been reliable in the field.

All five of the previously mentioned players are multi-year returners for Post 28, which supports Krol’s high expectations for this group.

“We have some really good players and good leaders here so I think we’re living up to that, but we’re not where we want to be yet by any means,” Krol said.

In terms of improvements Krol has on his mind, he would like to see his team be more consistent on both sides of the ball.

“Everything starts with defense,” Krol said. “Every single game comes down to it so if we can really get a deeper focus when it comes to defense, I think that’s going to start things too. Sometimes we can be a little streaky when it comes to hitting [too]. Sometimes we hit a lot at the beginning and not at the end and vice versa. [Tuesday] we only scored in one inning. It’s not necessarily a recipe for success, but again, good teams find a way to make it work.”

Northampton will likely remain in fourth place in the District 3 standings with the victory on Tuesday, which puts them in the playoff bracket as one of the top six teams. It’s shaping up to be a race to the finish with a fellow Hampshire County team as two-time District 3 champion Belchertown is having another stellar season on the diamond as the current top dogs in the standings.

Post 28 handed Belchertown its only loss of the season back on June 13 (6-1) and won’t make Post 287’s quest for a three-peat an easy one.

“We want to be playing baseball as long as we can,” Krol said. “Candidly, we take it one day at a time, one game at a time.”

Northampton won’t return to action until after the Fourth of July with its next game scheduled for Monday, July 7 against Monson Post 241. First pitch at Legion Field in Palmer is scheduled for 6 p.m.