Post 239 falls to Reds in extra innings, 4-3

VIRGINIA—While the Post 239 American Legion baseball team was able to take an early 3-0 lead, that only made the impending loss sting that much more as they watched things slowly slip away.

Trailing 3-0 after four, the visiting Superior Reds plated one in the fifth and two more in the to knot things up. After neither team scored a run in the seventh, the game went to extra innings where the top of the Reds lineup was ready to come to bat.

In the top of the eighth, a walk, a steal, a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly was all it took for the Reds as Superior scored one to steal the 4-3 win in extra innings.

“It’s the little things that didn’t go our way,” Post 239 head coach Jamie Lindseth said after the game. “We talk about execution, having quality at bats and outside of our three runs we score, we didn’t have that tonight. We got guys on base but we didn’t drive them in and we weren’t taking quality swings at the plate to help us out. That’s been the tale of our summer and we have to figure that out.”

With Will Kemp getting the start on the hill, Post 239 was off to a solid start. The ace gave up a single to Bo Teal to start things off but then earned a strikeout on Carter Gilbertson for the first out.

Teal stole his way to second and then took third, setting up Austin Lahti to drive him home. Lahti hit one into the infield to shortstop Joey Aho, who managed to fire the ball right back to catcher Harley Mott. Mott laid the tag onto Teal for the out, saving the run while amping up the Post 239 dugout.

A routine infield play during the next at-bat ended the frame and Post 239 went to work in the bottom half of the inning.

Griffin Dosan took a walk to start things off. Superior starter Dawson Ahlborg then issued back-to-back wild pitches with Dosan advancing a base on each. Mott then drew a walk as well to put runners on the corners.

Owen Hallin (running for Mott) stole second and both runners came in to score when Kemp blasted a single to right, 2-0 Post 239.

Kemp and Ahlborg traded 1-2-3 innings in the second and Kemp retired three more in order in the top of the third. Post 239 extended their lead in the home half of the inning.

Dosan doubled to left to start the frame and took advantage of another wild pitch to take third. Mott picked up the RBI right after grounding into the 6-3 play with Dosan scoring to make it a 3-0 ball game.

After Kemp had one more solid inning in the fourth for Post 239, Superior began their comeback.

In the top of the fifth, Hudson Helenius doubled to the left field orner with one out. An infield error from Post 239 allowed Sam Hubbard to reach and the lead runner came in to score on an RBI fielder’s choice on the next play, 3-1.

Dosan had a lone single in the fifth but the home team wasn’t able to score as Superior took on Kemp in the sixth inning.

Teal started the frame with a single up the right side. He then stole his way to second and came around to score with Gilbertson singling to right field. Post 239 wasn’t able to grab the first out with Lahti reaching on an error to put runners on first and second.

Lahti was thrown out but the lead runner advanced not long after on a fielder’s choice. The tying run came home when Jayce Rue singled to center shortly after, 3-3.

After a scoreless sixth and seventh from Post 239, the game went to extra innings with Superior capitalizing on the first opportunity they got.

Aho, who pitched a clean seventh for Post 239, gave up a leadoff walk to Teal to start the eighth. From there, Superior cleanly executed fundamental baseball. Teal stole second and then moved to third on a sac bunt from Gilbertson. With one out, a fly ball to center field from Lahti became the second out, allowing Teal to tag up and run home.

Sending it all the way home from center field, Blake Bailey nearly made the throw in time but it came in a split second too late as Teal scored safely, 4-3.

In the home half of the eighth, Tyler Reid reached on a leadoff walk but that was all Post 239 could get going as they took the loss.

“We had a real close play at the end to try and save that run so credit to Blake for giving us a chance,” Lindseth said after the game. “But it shouldn’t have come to that. We made too many mistakes along the way that kind of let them into the game. They needed one run and they knew how to get it.”

On the pitching from Kemp and Aho, Lindseth was positive.

“I thought Will pitched really well. He went as far as we could take him with 105 pitches. I thought Joey threw really well too. We just needed to do better defensively and at the plate and we just didn’t have that today. They were able to execute and we didn’t. I thought Superior played a really clean game so tip your cap to them. We had our mistakes and the little bounces didn’t go our way and that makes it tough to win a game.”

With more than a week off until their postseason begins, Lindseth says there’s good and bad to look at between now and then.

“We did some things well early on in the game but then you saw the things we didn’t do well later on. We need to work on some things. This is a game we wished we would have had leading up to the playoffs but hopefully that week leading up to it can help us.”