FAIRFIELD — Playing its eighth game in seven days, the Napa American Legion 19-and-under baseball team seemed to wither in the late innings as Yolo Post 77 came back for a 6-4 victory at the Western Amateur Baseball Federation Championship Tournament on Wednesday.

Napa starting pitcher CJ Blom, though, didn’t seem tired at all on a nice day at Laurel Creek Park’s Yarbrough Field.

The 2009 Napa High product — who has decided to play baseball instead of football at UC Davis as a walk-on next year — was pulled by manager Billy Smith after 41⁄3 innings with a 4-2 lead. Blom appeared to be getting stronger, having struck out three of the last six batters he faced.

Andrew Pieper came in from left field to relieve with his renowned knuckleball pitch, and Yolo seemed to know it well.

Jake Berlin (3-for-4) greeted him with a double, which was followed by a Wyatt Moreland single, an RBI single by Josh Ryan (2-for-4), a walk and a tying RBI groundout by Trent Hairston. Pieper ended the fifth-inning rally with a strikeout, but then gave up a leadoff homer to Suavae Cook in the sixth, followed by a first-pitch double to Jeff Boulware and RBI single to Berlin.

Yolo manager Matt Castles said Cook was Post 77’s MVP last year, but red-shirted at Southern University in Lousiana this spring.

“He was swinging as hard as he could every time,” Blom said of Cook. “(Pieper) has got a nice knuckleball, but it wasn’t on today.”

Smith said he need to save Blom for the rest of the tournament, which will have Napa playing three to five more games before it wraps up Sunday.

“CJ threw really well. He controlled the game,” the manager said. “We’re all tired and we’ve got guys missing because of summer school, so going into this game we wanted to go four innings with CJ and hopefully get a couple guys to (finish it). Pieper threw strikes and we just didn’t make plays for him. He made a couple of mistakes but it’s all right, it’s pool play.

“You just hate to lose when you have the game in hand and you have to save your pitching for later on instead of letting CJ go the distance — but then he’d be done for the rest of the tournament. We need his arm. He’s one of our top three guys.”

Pieper, Napa’s leadoff hitter, was coincidentally the last batter to face Yolo starter Max Perea (eight hits, seven walks, two strikeouts), getting hit by a pitch to load the bases with two out in the fifth. Second baseman Jay Puckett took over on the mound and induced fly balls from all seven batters he faced to notch the win.

Napa scored four runs in the first five innings despite stranding 11 runners.

In the second inning, Robbie Steen (2-for-3) and Michael Crandell (2-or-3) opened with back-to-back singles and both scored one out later when Pieper’s sacrifice fly led to an error, tying the score 2-2. Yolo didn’t answer, leaving the bases loaded in the third and hitting into a 6-4-3 double play turned by Chris Hard from shortstop Mike Santora to first baseman Steen in the fourth.

Napa rallied for 3-2 lead with two out in the fifth on walks to Pieper and Santora (1-for-2, double) and a Dan Pardini RBI single. In the fifth, Ben Ballantine singled and stole second, drawing an errant throw to advance to third. Steen singled him in, but was then picked off by Perea. After Perea loaded the bases, Puckett saved Yolo’s day.

Brandon Savin added a single in Napa’s eight-hit attack.

Napa (18-13-1) was 2-0 against Yolo going in, with a 14-2 win in its season opener and a 6-5 win against Post 77’s ace in Chico on June 18.

“They’re a good team, like us, and today we had the game we just didn’t close it out,” said Blom, who gave up five hits and three walks while fanning five. “The last two innings everybody hit it hard but right at an outfielder. Once the District 5 playoffs start (next week at the same park), hopefully we’ll get it going. We’ve just played nonstop the last three weeks. You’ve just got to be mentally prepared to play.”

Yolo (17-14) atoned for an error-laden 12-9 loss to Vacaville earlier Wednesday.

“We came back and played solid defense against Napa to stay in the game and give ourselves a chance,” Castles said.

Napa was coming off Tuesday’s 12-2 rout of West Sacramento, a six-inning contest highlighted by Josh Cariela’s six-hitter and Ballantine’s two-run homer to left-center.

“Josh threw very well,” Smith said. “He had trouble with his command in the first two innings but ... made some mechanical adjustments and stayed ahead in the count and made the hitters hit his pitch. He needed an outing like that for himself and his confidence. Our offense gave him some breathing room and it allowed him to relax and concentrate on his pitching. We will definitely need more outings like this from Josh for the rest of the summer.”

Ballantine (2-for-4, two RBIs), Pieper (2-for-3, two runs), Pardini (2-for-4, triple, double, three RBIs), Hard (2-for-3), Blom (1-for-4, RBI) and Steen (1-for-4, RBI) led Napa’s offense.

Napa went 0-6 at last week’s Reno tournament, losing 8-2 to Boise, 7-5 to Reno, 10-0 and 11-8 to Chaffey, Ariz., 8-7 to Danville and 9-8 to Yakima, Wash.

“We faced several quality teams over the six days,” Smith said. “Our bats were quieted for most of the tournament, although Pardini was the bright spot with a towering home run on Sunday.”

 Napa continues WABF Tournament pool play at 1 p.m. today against San Mateo, and at 10 a.m. Friday against Vacaville. There will be single-elimination play on Saturday and Sunday.