Post 346 win assures state championship berth
· Yahoo Sports
Wayne Newton Post 346 earned a spot in Sunday's American Legion baseball regional championship round by beating Crawfordsville's Byron Cox Post 72 by a 4-2 score early Saturday afternoon on Terre Haute North's steamy Don Jennings Field.
More importantly, Post 346 assured itself of a spot in next weekend's eight-team state finals at Rockport, where the top two teams in each of the four regionals will convene.
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Wayne Newton plays at noon Sunday against the survivor of the rest of Saturday's play. Jasper Post 147 and Elberfeld Post 351, the two losers of Friday night games, met mid-afternoon Saturday, the winner to face Crawfordsville later to determine Post 346's Sunday opponent.
The home team's task Sunday might be made simpler, since the survivor among the last three teams will have spent a lot more time in the heat and used up a lot of its pitching strength.
"I like our chances," said coach Jason Fields of Post 346 after Saturday's win. "We've got plenty of arms left."
Wayne Newton had a slightly different advantage against Crawfordsville, which had advanced by beating Elberfeld 4-2 late Saturday night in a 10-inning game that featured two hours of lightning delays and concluded at approximately 1 a.m. Saturday.
But Post 72, one of only three teams to beat Post 346 so far this summer, had saved its ace pitcher for the host team, and Aiden Riser's battle against Wayne Newton's Ty Hamilton made every play an important one.
Having lost the pregame coin toss, the host team quickly jumped into the lead when Briar Goda led off the game with a walk, stole second, continued to third on an overthrow and scored on Hunter Mason's grounder.
That unearned run was matched in the bottom of the third when a walk, an error on a sacrifice bunt and a two-out RBI single by Riser tied the game.
Colten Moore's one-out homer in the top of the fourth put Post 346 back on top, but that lead lasted only until the bottom of the inning when a two-out walk, a passed ball and an RBI single by Crawfordsville's Kyven Hill tied the game again.
A Crawfordsville error and a two-out, two-strike RBI single by Goda in the top of the fifth put Wayne Newton ahead to stay, and the lead was protected in the bottom of the inning when catcher Noah Fields nailed a runner trying to steal second, his second throw-out of the game.
Post 346 got another two-out, two-strike RBI in the sixth, this time by Linden Jenkins, and Hamilton and reliever Trey Eldridge did the rest, helped by a game-ending line-drive double play started by shortstop Parker Higham.
The host team still hasn't allowed an earned run in two tournament games, but that wasn't enough to make Hamilton happy.
"Both walks," he muttered about the two Crawfordsville players who had scored against him.
"We're right where we wanted to be," coach Fields concluded.
WAYNE NEWTON POST 346 (AB-R-H-RBI) — Goda cf 2-1-1-1, Fields c 4-0-0-0, Mason 3b 3-0-0-1, Moore rf 3-2-2-1, Weir lf 3-0-0-0, Jenkins 1b 2-0-1-1, Pierce 2b 3-1-0-0, Higham ss 2-0-2-0, Lawson dh 3-0-0-0, Hamilton p 0-0-0-0, Eldridge p 0-0-0-0. Totals 25-4-6-4.
BYRON COX POST 72 (AB-R-H-RBI) — Ambriz-Cruz ss 2-0-0-0, Gooch cf 2-0-0-0, Riserp 2-0-1-1, Wooten lf 3-0-0-0, Scott 1b 3-0-0-0, Smith 3b 2-1-0-0, Hill 2b 3-0-2-1, Miller c 2-0-0-0, Brown ph 1-0-1-0, Heaton rf 1-1-0-0. Totals 21-2-4-2.
Wayne Newton 100 111 0 — 4
Byron Cox 001 100 0 — 2
E — Miller, Hamilton, Ambriz-Cruz. DP — WN 1. LOB — WN 4, BC 4. HR — Moore. SB — Goda, Moore. CS — Jenkins, Hill, Ambriz-Cruz. SH — Higham.
Wayne Newton IP H R ER BB SO
Hamilton (W) 6 3 2 0 3 3
Eldridge (Sv) 1 1 0 0 0 1
Byron Cox IP H R ER BB SO
Riser (L) 7 6 4 2 3 2
HBP — by Hamilton (Riser), by Hamilton (Gooch). PB — Fields. T — 1:39.