North Adams, Mass. - The North Adams SteepleCats recorded a third-straight come-from-behind win Thursday night as they defeated the Danbury Westerners 4-2 in game one of the NECBL Western Division Finals.

SteepleCats starter Stephen Rivera allowed a run in the top of the first inning to give the Westerners a 1-0 lead, but it was a short-lived lead. The first three SteepleCats batters in the bottom of the first reached base and Mike LeBel scored on Cam Kneeland's single to tie the game 1-1.

The SteepleCats took the lead in the fifth inning. Garrett Gray singled to start the frame and, after a Tom Coulombe fly out, Westerners starter Michael Anarumo issued back-to-back walks to LeBel and Kyle Saul before being relieved by Stephen Catalina. Catalina got Kneeland to fly out to shallow right field for the second out of the inning but then ran into trouble. Matt Petty gave the SteepleCats the lead when he singled to right field and drove in Gray and LeBel. Devin Shines came up next and singled to left to drive in Saul and make the score 4-1.

With one out in the top of the sixth inning, Westerners catcher Mike Williams drilled a Rivera pitch over the left field fence and off the scoreboard to make the score 4-2 but that was as close as the Westerners got. Rivera struck out two of the next three batters to get out of the inning. He struck out seven batters on the night.

The SteepleCats bullpen was superb, facing just ten batters over the game's final three innings. Randall Bulliard pitched a perfected seventh inning, Corey Vogt faced only three batters in the eighth and Sean Albury struck out the side in the ninth.

Rivera picked up the win in his first postseason appearance. Anarumo suffered the loss in his first postseason appearance for the Westerners. Albury picked up his first postseason save.

Game two of the series will be tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. at Rogers Park in Danbury, Ct. The winner of this best-of-three series will move on to the NECBL Championship Series to take on the winner of the Eastern Division Finals. The Newport Gulls defeated the North Shore Navigators in game one of that series, 5-4.