By Dennis Clark
TERRE HAUTE — Wayne Newton Post 346 was seemingly sitting pretty. Safely ensconced in the Terre Haute Invitational American Legion baseball championship game vs. Evansville Pate Post 265 with a well-rested ace hurler A.J. Reed ready to take the mound.
However, Reed struggled. At the same time, Post 346 committed five errors to Reed’s detriment, allowing Pate to tally eight unearned runs. As a result, Pate defeated Wayne Newton 10-3 to win the championship game at Patriot Field on Sunday.
In the earlier third place game, Madison Post 9 doubled up Lafayette Post 11 16-8.
“It was 4-3 going into the bottom of the sixth,” lamented Post 346 manager John Hayes. “We made some mistakes, our composure didn’t stay very good. That’s something we’ve got to work on. We’re just making too many small mental mistakes that we’ve got to get corrected.
“[Reed] threw 10 innings in the regional and we didn’t want to overthrow him,” Hayes said when asked if Reed might have been a bit rusty. “He threw last weekend up at Remington. We had some rainouts or we would have given him a couple innings of work during the week.”
“Reed throws the ball really well,” Pate manager Jeremy Jones said. “Our guys did a good job in working in the count, thought we got his pitch count up pretty quick. We accepted the fact we had to go the other way with him. So we did a good job there.
“Ross Boeglin, our pitcher, came out and threw strikes … and our defense played really well.”
Pate jumped ahead 2-0 in the first, two singles followed by a two-run double from Dave Johnson. Meanwhile, Wayne Newton failed to capitalize on scoring opportunities — two runners lost on the basepaths — in the first three innings.
In the Post 346 third, they loaded the bases with nobody out, but could only manage a Michael Eberle sacrifice fly to get within 2-1.
Pate increased its lead to 4-1 in the fourth, then Post 346 crept back within 4-3 in the top of the fifth. Nick Pilipovich led off with a double, then with two outs, Jacob Hayes had an infield single. Both runners scored on a two-run double by Michael Eberle.
Reed settled down to retire eight of the next nine batters, but Post 346 missed a golden scoring opportunity in the top of the sixth.
Zac Niehaus led off with a single and was sacrifice bunted to second. With two outs, Pilipovich hit a long fly ball deep into the left field corner, but Pate leftfielder Brandon Ford made a nice running catch to keep Pate ahead 4-3.
Then came the fateful bottom of the sixth inning.
An error, a Reed wild pitch and a bunt single by Nick Paradossi put Pate runners at first and third with nobody out. While Reed was in the stretch position, Paradossi attempted to steal second. Reed did not move from his set position, then stepped off just as Paradossi slid into second base.
The Pate bench screamed for a balk, hoping to score the runner from third. But a balk was not called, while one of their bench coaches was tossed from the game for arguing too vehemently.
Reed rallied to strike out the next two batters — he had 10 in the game — but walked the ninth-place batter to load the bases. That’s when the wheels fell off.
Reed hit the next two Pate batters with pitches to plate two runs, then Justin Ahlbrand drove in two additional runs with a line drive single off Reed’s foot into short center field. Reed, who was not hurt, departed the game trailing 8-3.
Tylor Goldman relieved, but two more runs scored — his pickoff attempt throw was wide to first for an error, then a RBI-single by Reece Rounder — before closing out the inning.
Boeglin picked up the victory, while Pate reliever Brandon Flora retired eight of the nine batters he faced to earn the save.
Evansville 10, W.Newton 3
W.Newton ab r h bi Evansville ab r h bi
Hayes ss 3 1 1 0 Hohl ss 2 2 0 1
Eberle 3b 2 0 1 3 Horstman cf 3 3 2 2
Reed p 3 0 0 0 Ahlbrnd 2b-1b 3 1 2 2
Goldman p 0 0 0 0 Rounder 3b 4 1 1 1
Niehaus lf 3 0 2 0 Johnson 1b 3 0 1 3
Luken rf 2 0 0 0 Cnnway pr-2b 1 1 0 0
Fulkerson 2b 3 0 0 0 Paradossi c 3 1 1 0
Pilipovich 1b 2 1 1 0 N.Ray dh 3 0 0 0
Collett c 3 1 1 0 Mangold rf 3 0 0 0
Gauer cf 3 0 1 0 Ford lf 2 1 1 0
Totals 24 3 7 3 Totals 27 10 8 9
Wayne Newton 001 020 0 — 3
Evansville 202 006 x — 10
E — Goldman, Fulkerson, Pilipovich 2, Collett. DP — Evansville 1. LOB — WN 4, EV 4. 2B — Eberle, Niehaus, Pilipovich, Johnson. SH — Luken. SF — Eberle. SB — Hohl, Horstman, Rounder, Paradossi. CS — Hayes, Mangold.
IP H R ER BB SO
Wayne Newton
Reed (L, 1-1) 5 2-3 7 10 2 3 10
Goldman 1-3 1 0 0 0 1
Evansville
Boeglin (W) 4 2-3 6 3 3 1 4
Flora (S) 2 1-3 1 0 0 0 0
WP — Reed. HBP — by Reed (Hohl, Horstman); by Boeglin (Pilipovich). T — 1:52.
Next — Wayne Newton (10-4) hosts Robinson, Ill. on Tuesday, Greene County on Wednesday, then is at Vincennes on Thursday. Evansville Pate (14-4) plays Jasper the same night.
TH Invitational
At Terre Haute North
Thursday
Wayne Newton Post 346 3, Lafayette Post 11 2
Evansville Pate Post 265 12, Bristol Post 143 2
Wayne Newton 8, Madison Post 9 6
Friday
Madison 11, Bristol 7
Evansville 8, Lafayette 2, suspended after 6 innings.
Bristol vs. Wayne Newton, ppd.
Saturday
Wayne Newton 12, Bristol 4
Lafayette 7, Madison 3
Evansville 8, Lafayette 2, completion of Friday’s suspended game
Evansville 14, Madison 4
Lafayette 5, Bristol 2
Wayne Newton 16, Evansville 15
Sunday
Third-place game: Madison 16, Lafayette 8
Championship game: Evansville 10, Wayne Newton 3
