TERRE HAUTE —
If Friday evening’s American Legion baseball regional opener was ridiculously easy for Wayne Newton Post 346, the host team’s second-round game Saturday afternoon was even more ridiculously hard.
St. Leon Post 464, which came to the tournament with an 8-18 record, was an eyelash away from being in the driver’s seat but yielded that spot to Post 346 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Terre Haute finally escaping by a 7-6 score.
Post 346 is back in action at 1 p.m. today, needing just one more win to reach the state finals at Plymouth that begin Thursday. Floyds Knobs defeated St. Leon 12-1 in Saturday night’s elimination game. Floyds Knobs was a 4-2 winner over Seymour in Saturday’s second game, and will have to beat Wayne Newton twice today to advance.
Beating the host team at all looked like an impossible proposition Friday, when Post 346 scored 27 runs in its first five innings — 21 in its first three trips to the plate — in a win over Seymour, but less than 24 hours later it was as cold as it had been hot in the first game.
Heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, Post 346 had managed just three hits off St. Leon’s Derick Short, trailed 5-2, and was lucky to be that close.
“Kind of ugly,” manager John Hayes said of his team’s performance up to that point. “We thought we were going to score a lot of runs like we did [Friday], and it doesn’t work that way.”
But Tony Rosselli battled to an 11-pitch at-bat leading off the inning, eventually showing his uncommon strength by lunging for a full-count pitch and somehow flicking it over the left fielder’s head for a double. Sam Wolf followed with a double to right — his only RBI of the game, after driving in 11 runs a day earlier — and the lead was cut to 5-3.
A wild pitch put Wolf at third, Cody Thornton drew a walk and stole second, and that was enough for Short, who had thrown 127 pitches to that point. Post 346 hitters were not sorry to see him go.
Zach Milam greeted the relief pitcher with a one-hopper to the mound that turned into an RBI when the pitcher inexplicably threw to first base even though the runner coming from third looked to be an easy out at the plate. Preston Tofaute’s walk and Daniel Marlow’s beaning — a pitch that broke his helmet, although the Post 346 infielder was able to stay in the game — loaded the bases, Kodie Girton drove in the tying run with a single and Scott West got the game-winning RBIs with a two-run hit through a pulled-in infield.
St. Leon had found several ways to score runs throughout the game, and the top of the ninth was no different. A one-out walk followed by a single had the potential tying run on base before T.J. Decker induced a grounder and a popup to end the game. The visitors’ sixth run came when Casey Wagner scored all the way from second as Post 346 tried to turn a game-ending double play.
Wayne Newton had double plays in each of the first two innings Saturday, but that didn’t prevent the visitors from scoring an unearned run in each frame. Jake Theobald’s double after a one-out error gave St. Leon a 1-0 lead, and a single, walk and error loaded the bases with nobody out in the second before Post 464’s second run scored as the double play was accomplished.
Thornton’s two-out triple in the bottom of the fourth broke up Short’s no-hit bid, and Post 346 scratched out its own unearned run in the fifth when Girton got a two-out single, West reached on an error and Dalton Sexton got a bad-hop single that brought Girton home.
Any thought about a momentum change went away immediately, however, as the visitors got two runs without a hit in the next half inning — a walk, a hit batter, a sacrifice, a run-scoring wild pitch and a deflected grounder that thwarted Post 346’s pulled-in infield. Wayne Newton did get one of those runs back — also without a hit — in the bottom of the inning when Wolf was safe on an error and came around on a wild pitch and two grounders.
Pete Lannoo — who “came in and did a heck of a job,” Hayes said later — relieved starter Bryan Nacke and got out of a seventh-inning jam, and his team threatened to do damage in the bottom of the inning. Post 346 hitters had been taking the first strike from at least the bottom of the sixth, and Marlow and Girton drew walks to open the seventh.
“I’m a firm believer that there comes a time when you have to take some pitches, especially if you’re not hitting well,” Hayes said later, “and I think even after we took some strikes we swung the bat a little better because we were concentrating more.”
The seventh-inning threat was wiped out immediately, however, when a failed sacrifice attempt was followed by a double-play ball. And in the top of the eighth a leadoff walk turned into a run for St. Leon when Lucas Gramman bunted into a force play, stole second and third and came home on a throwing error.
The visitors left the field Saturday afternoon looking like a team much better than its record, despite the eventual heart-breaking loss.
“They’ve just stepped up this tournament,” coach Mike Wieser said of his St. Leon players, “and we’ve had some good pitching that we haven’t had during the regular season.”
“St. Leon is a good club, and they played well,” Hayes agreed. “We could very well see them again [today].
“I’m just glad we’re not playing [later Saturday].”
Sports
Related Photos
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Heat: Post 346 pitcher T. J. Decker throws a pitch to the plate during the final inning of Saturday's game against St. Leon Post 464. Post 346 won the game 7-6.
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Eye-ball: Post 346 second baseman Daniel Marlow snags a grounder during Saturday's game against St. Leon Post 464.
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Good advice: Coach John Hayes gives some advice to Tony Rosselli during the late innings of Saturday's game against St. Leon Post 464. Rosselli stroked a double during his at-bat.
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Dust bowl: Post 346 shortstop Daniel Marlow fires a fielded ball to first base to get the batter out Saturday afternoon.
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