ROCKPORT — American Legion Byron Cox Post 72’s baseball team stayed alive in the state finals with two wins over the weekend at Rockport.
After a first-round loss to Lafayette, it was two wins in the loser’s bracket over South Haven and Plymouth to get into the fourth round to be played Monday.
After the three games, their season record is 24-11.
Moving into Monday, July 27 means the squad is in the final four of the state tournament. They reached the championship game of the 2021 event.
ROUND 1 LOSS TO LAFAYETTE
It was a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to Post 11 in the first round of the tournament
After four scoreless innings, Post 72 got a run in the fifth, but gave up two in the seventh to take the loss.
Dillon Heaton singled to lead off the fifth, reached second on a wild pitch, and scored on a Sam Gooch single.
Crawfordsville had left six runners on base in the first four innings, but got none across, before scoring their lone run.
Lafayette had only two hits off Aiden Riser in their first six at-bats, but picked up three hits and the two runs in the seventh to win.
It was a single, two errors, single, error and a wild pitch that saw Post 11 get their two and avenge two regular-season losses to Crawfordsville and move to 23-12 on the season.
Eli Barnes pitched a complete game for Lafayette and Riser went the distance for Post 11.
ROUND 2 WIN OVER SOUTH HAVEN
Crawfordsville bounced back with a 3-1 win in their first loser’s bracket game over the Post 502 Blaze, ending South Haven’s season at 15-15-1.
Post 72 scored single runs in the second, fourth and seventh innings, while allowing one sixth-inning score.
Sam Gooch swung the hot bat with three hits in three trips to the plate. It was single, double, double for the Greencastle star. He also scored twice.
Gooch was the first of three straight batters to reach in the second, as both Ethan Wooten and Kaden Smith laid down bunt singles behind him. He scored on a ground ball out by Keaton Brown.
Gooch doubled in the fourth, took third on a wild pitch and scored on a Wooten ground ball out.
In the seventh, Smith reached on an error, moved to second on a Brown bunt single and third on a wild pitch, scoring on a sacrifice fly by Aiden Ambriz-Cruz.
Talyn Sheldon got the start and the win, his third of the season, throwing four innings. Nate Kouns picked up his first save of the season, finishing the game. The Post 72 defense put a zero in the errors column to support the pitching.
ROUND 3 WIN OVER PLYMOUTH
Crawfordsville’s bats exploded for 10 runs in the first five innings as they downed Plymouth 11-5, ending Post 27’s season at 13-13.
Scoring in each of those five at-bats, and adding an extra run in the seventh, Post 72 scored the most runs since June 27 and also scored the most runs in any game of this state tournament. A total of 13 hits, scattered throughout the lineup, made for the runs, as they got three in the first, one in the second and third, two in the fourth, and three again in the fifth.
Heaton was the star of the show, as the Clinton Central grad/Wabash commit not only had three hits, including a double, he drove in five runs.
But there is more, as he picked up the pitching win, starting and going into the sixth inning before giving way to Ethan Campbell. He struck out six. His seven starts and four wins are both team-highs for the season.
Ambriz-Cruz reached base three times on two hits and an error. He scored all three times. The North product also drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.
Riser had three hits, two runs scored and an RBI. Gooch singled his first three times up, running a hit streak to seven before making an out in the fifth. He scored twice and drove in two. A total of seven players crossed home plate at least once, as Post 72 also took advantage of six Plymouth errors.
