The past few years, regardless of how the regular season has gone, the postseason has been a time to shine for the Gershkoff Auto Body/Auburn Post 20 American Legion team.

Three years ago, Gershkoff won the whole thing, and it followed that up with an appearance in the state’s final four in 2012 and a runner-up finish in 2013.

This year, Gershkoff has been at it again.

The No. 8 seed and the last team into the double-elimination playoffs, Gershkoff started its run with a 2-0 victory over top-seeded Senerchia Post 74 on Saturday and then knocked off No. 2 New England Frozen Lemonade/Shields Post 43 11-8 on Sunday.

Those two wins left Gershkoff as one of the last two unbeatens remaining. The team was finally handed its first loss of the playoffs Monday night, 13-6 to R&R Construction.

As of Tuesday, that left Gershkoff as one of the final four teams remaining in the field. It was scheduled to take on R&R again on Tuesday night, needing to win to stay alive. With a win in that game, it would need to win twice on Wednesday to capture the championship. Results were unavailable at press time.

“We played two tremendous games that were flawless,” said Gershkoff manager Dave Schiappa after Monday’s loss. “Coming into tonight we came out guns blazing, but we were tired. I think we lost that mental toughness.”

Entering the playoffs, Gershkoff had lost eight consecutive games, but it rebounded in a hurry against Senerchia, a team with only one loss in the regular season.

Frank Pettinato, John Beneduce and Myles Levy combined on the shutout. Pettinato pitched into the seventh inning, Beneduce relieved him and got Gershkoff out of a jam and Levy pitched the final two innings to finish off the 2-0 victory. Senerchia pitchers Anthony Graziano and Kyle Barbato were almost as good but Gershkoff pushed two runs across and that proved to be enough.

On Sunday, Gershkoff squared off against another top seed – and another rival – in No. 2 NEFL/Shields Post 43. NEFL steadily took control and led by as many as four runs, but Gershkoff came through with a stunning rally in the seventh inning.

Gershkoff trailed 8-5 at the start of the inning. With two outs and nobody on, Travis Collins and Matt Lonardo worked walks and Dan Smith delivered an RBI single to make it 8-6. With the bases loaded, NEFL reliever Elijah Dressel induced a weak ground ball back to the mound from Noah Gemma, but his throw to first pulled Ben Mann off the bag, allowing a run to score and keeping the inning alive. Gershkoff made the miscue hurt in the worst way possible, as Mike Castillo smashed the next pitch over the fence in left field for a game-changing grand slam. Kemi Idowu, who had relieved starter Beneduce in the fifth, ran with the lead, finishing the game with three scoreless innings to seal the Gershkoff victory.

That set up the showdown with R&R, and Gershkoff got off on the right foot until the wheels fell off in the late innings. It led 3-0 after the first inning on an RBI single by Pettinato and sacrifice flies by Collins and Lonardo, and it was ahead 6-4 in the sixth inning, but R&R eventually woke up.

It scored three runs in the sixth, four in the seventh and two in the eighth to turn the two-run deficit into a seven-run lead.

“We made some mistakes hitting cutoffs, leaving our feet in the outfield,” said Schiappa. “I also think some routine plays that could have been made, weren’t made. We do have some younger players. I think they rose to the occasion the first couple games, but they got a little tired and lost some of that toughness.”

While Gershkoff certainly made plenty of mistakes – it made four errors while misplaying a number of other balls – R&R did its part with the bats, too. It had 19 hits on the day, getting to Gershkoff’s starter Levy for 11 of those hits in just 5.2 innings.

Levy left the game with his team trailing 7-6, as he was driven from the game on a two-run single by Peter Lowen, giving R&R its first lead of the game.

Both of those runs were unearned, however, as an infield error earlier in the inning had kept R&R’s rally going.

“He was still doing well, he still had some velocity, his pitch count was okay, so we let him go as long as he could,” Schiappa said. “In that inning, it wasn’t his fault. There were a couple of miscues and that was going to be his last inning. None of that was his issue.”

And R&R’s onslaught didn’t stop there. Smith came on in relief to finish the sixth, and in the seventh he allowed two baserunners with one out before being pulled for Collins.

In what was still a one-run game, R&R greeted Collins with an RBI single by Will Hathaway, and an error on Castillo in center allowed another run to score. Khalil Moon then added a two-run single, putting Gershkoff in an 11-6 hole.

“Four errors is too much in a legion game,” Schiappa said. “It just really is.”

R&R’s Derek Lima, who came on in relief in the sixth inning for starter Alex Kirby, kept his team comfortably in front. He got out of a jam in the sixth, worked around a two-out walk in the seventh and stranded two other walked batsmen in the eighth. In the ninth, he set the side down in order.

Over 3.1 innings of work, he allowed no hits and struck out five.

R&R added two more unearned runs in the eighth, both of which scored on separate Gershkoff errors.

Besides its three runs in the first, Gershkoff got a run in the fourth on an RBI single by Peter Esposito, and it grabbed two in the sixth when a run came home on a double play and another scored on a wild pitch.

From then on, though, it was all R&R.

“I expect us to bounce back,” Schiappa said.

Smith was expected to get the start Tuesday, where Gershkoff was hoping to stay alive for another day and give itself a chance at the state title.

“I think they’ll be fine tomorrow, I really do,” Schiappa said. “I think they can beat anybody.”