The New England Frozen Lemonade - Shields Post 43 legion team had trouble manufacturing runs in the front end of a twinbill with West Warwick - Post Two, falling 2-1 in 10 innings at McCarthy Field.

NEFL didn’t advance a runner past first base after the fourth inning and was held hitless overall, and the support wasn’t there for starter Shane Kittila or reliever Dave Defusco. Kittila went eight strong innings, allowing just one run on three hits and one walk with six strikeouts.

“Basically, [we] have to be aggressive on the first pitch,” NEFL center fielder Matt Boelter said. “Don’t let a lot of pitches go by.”

Shields held on to a 1-0 lead heading into the final frame as Kittila looked to go the distance. Ray Zincone started the inning with a four-pitch walk before advancing to second on a sacrifice. Matt Gowdy grounded into a fielder’s choice to push Zincone to third, setting up a two-out situation with the tying run 90 feet away.

Tyler Boisclair came through for Post Two, lining a first-pitch, seeing-eye single back up the middle to tie the game and send it to extras.

“In the last inning, I was feeling pretty good, but my pitch count got high so I had to come out,” Kittila said. “It happens, but I wish I could’ve stayed in. We’re good, we’ve got a lot of good guys on this team so we’ll bounce back.”

NEFL struggled to figure out reliever Alex Ventura. The offense was frozen in the bonus frames, going 0-for-9 with four fly outs, two ground outs, two strikeouts and a line out. Defusco came on to continue holding off West Warwick, but it eventually broke through in the 10th.

Defusco got the first two batters of the inning to strike out before losing Chris Gaipo on a 2-2 count, yielding a single to center field. Charlie Tashjian followed with a first-pitch single on the ground into right field. A passed ball with Ventura at the dish allowed both runners to advance into scoring position.

Ventura didn’t wait around, lining the next pitch past Defusco to plate Gaipo and end the game.

NEFL’s lone run of the night came on Boelter’s RBI double to deep left field, which scored Chris Reid easily from second base.

“Just have to get the momentum back from when we had it in the beginning of the [first] game,” Kittila said of what NEFL had to do to earn the series split. “Just try to come back here and hit the ball, make the plays we did in the first game.”

NEFL’s offense rebounded in Game 2 with Elijah Dressel on the bump. Defusco notched a triple and Boelter added a couple more hits as Shields beat Post Two, 7-4. Dressel allowed four runs to cross in the first inning, but he settled in after that. He shut down West Warwick’s bats for the rest of the night to give the offense time to find rhythm.

Next up for Shields was a game at Warwick Vets against Woonsocket on Wednesday evening, but results were unavailable at press time. NEFL will suit up again tonight versus Cumberland at 5:30 p.m. at Lischio Field in North Kingstown.