LINDEN -— Friday night marked the beginning of post-season play for Byron Cox Post 72 as they hosted the Regional tournament at North Montgomery. The schedule got thrown into flux earlier in the afternoon after Danville Post 118 dropped out from the tournament making it just a three team, double elimination Regional. Post 72 was supposed to take on Terre Haute Wayne Newton Post 346 but in a re-draw ended up taking on Madison Post 9 with Terre Haute getting the bye.
Nonetheless when play began against Madison Post 72 turned to North Montgomery ace Jarrod Kirsch in game one. Madison would jump on Kirsch early in the first inning scoring one run on three hits but after that, Kirsch was phenomenal retiring the next 18 batters in a row as Post 72 opened up Regional play with a 4-1 win to advance to the winners bracket.
“That was a flat out gem from Jarrod,” Post 72 coach Kyle Proctor said. “We knew his pitch count was in good shape so we were going to let him go as long as he could. After that shaky start, he just tore it up the rest of the game.”
Kirsch in the complete game win allowed just the three hits in the first inning and that one run. He struck out nine and walked just two.
Post 72 (20-9) was able to get the bats going in the fourth inning. After a lead-off single by Keifer Wilson the next two hitters recorded outs and it was up to Frankfort’s Quentcy Perry. Perry laced a double into center field which scored Wilson as Post 72 got on the board to even the score at 1-1. Perry then stole third base and scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-1. Wilson in the fifth scored Bryce Dowell on a sacrifice fly and Post 72 would score one more insurance run in the top of the seventh when Perry made his presence felt again with a n RBI single which scored Cannon Morton.
“Early on you could tell we hadn’t played in six days,” Proctor said. “We can still do a better job of hitting the ball. I did like how we ran the bases when we did get on. We have good team speed up and down this lineup. Early Madison made some great defensive plays but we just kept at it and eventually broke through.”
Post 72 now will play Terre Haute with a star t time of 1 pm on Saturday while Madison falls into the losers bracket and will play the loser of the winners bracket game at 3:30. Post 72 with a win on Saturday would officially punch their ticket to the State Tournament next week as the top two teams in each Regional qualify. The last time Terre Haute and Post 72 met up it was a nice 19-5 win for Crawfordsville but Proctor knows that his team can’t rest on that.
“This will be a whole new game,” he said. “We’re going to see their ace which we didn’t in that win earlier in the year. We just have to stay in the winners bracket and win this whole thing.”
