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Post 127 wins two 25th District Tournament games

By Steve Webb

Murphysboro American

Thu Jul 24, 2008, 10:51 AM CDT

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Murphysboro, Ill. -

At this point in the season a win is a win, no matter if it's a blowout or a nailbiter.

The Murphysboro American Legion baseball team can attest to that after playing its first two games in the 25th District Tournament.

Both games were wins, but they were won in completely different fashion.

On Monday evening at Riverside Park, Post 127 had to go the distance to beat Orient, 13-10. But last Saturday, Murphysboro opened tournament play by pounding Carbondale, 14-0, in seven innings.

The contest against Orient saw Post 127 (33-3) commit five errors, which led to three unearned runs. Meanwhile, the pitching handed out seven walks and also hit three batters.

"We didn't have very good pitching,'' said Murphysboro coach Butch Brasel. "We usually start these conversations off with how well our pitching did.

"We had a decent night on offense, but pitching wise it was a struggle for the biggest part of the night."

But Cobden product Ethan Myers brought the struggles to an end when he entered the game with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Up to that point Murphysboro starter Adam McMahan, and reliever Caleb Luttrell, had given up 10 runs and combined to hit three batters and walk five.

The result was a 10-8 lead for Orient when Luttrell was removed from the game with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the fifth.

That's when Myers came in and slammed the door, getting a foul out and a strikeout to end the inning and keep Murphysboro's deficit at two runs heading into the sixth inning.

"Ethan was able to come in and stop the bleeding,'' Brasel said. "He gave us a little stability where it resembled a baseball game instead of a slowpitch softball game."

Once Myers stopped Orient in its tracks the rest of the game belonged to Post 127.

Neither team scored in the sixth, but Murphysboro regained the lead in the seventh by scoring three times.

The inning began with McMahan drawing a walk. Following a strikeout and a fly out, Adam Connor stepped to the plate a launched a 3-2 pitch from Orient's Justin Head well over the left field for a home run that tied the game at 10-10.

"That home run was a big boost for us,'' Brasel said. "We had a big inning in the fifth (five runs) and then turned around and gave back everything that we had earned as Orient scored five times."

Caleb Luttrell followed Connor's long ball with a double to right field, and he scored on Joe Davidson's single up the middle to give Post 127 an 11-10 advantage. The top of the seventh then came to a close when Frank Cano struck out.

Murphysboro got a pair of insurance runs in the top of the eighth on Hayden Hicks' run-scoring double to right center, and Luttrell's single to left field, which made it 13-10.

The three-run cushion was more than enough for Myers.

The lefty did get into a pinch in the bottom of the eighth, but he got out a two-on one-out jam by getting Matt Melvin to fly out to right field.

Then in the bottom of the ninth, Dereck Thomas reached on an error to start the inning, but following a strikeout Myers would pick him off of first base for the second out of the inning. The final out was then recorded when Matt Hand fielded a grounder and three the runner out at first.

Myers wound up throwing 60 pitches in his 4.2 innings of work. He allowed just one hit, walked two and fanned five to improve to 6-0 on the season.

Connor was the hitting start, going 3-for-5 with a double, homer and three RBI. Luttrell and Hand also had three hits and drove in a run apiece, while Hicks finished with two hits and two RBI. Davidson had two hits, including a triple, and drove in three runs.

The victory over Orient was a lot different than the win over Carbondale, which saw Post 127 score early and often.

Murphysboro took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Hand doubled and then scored on a groundout by Hicks.

Post 127 would then break it open in the second, scoring six times on six hits and one Carbondale error. Hand had a two-run single during the outburst, while Adam MacFarlane and Connor had RBI hits. The other two runs crossed the plate when Carbondale shortstop Aaron Busher couldn't handle a ball hit by Luttrell.

Murphysboro didn't score in the third, but posted four more runs in the top of the fourth to grab an 11-0 lead.

Connor, Luttrell and Calvin Baker drove in a run apiece in the inning.

Baker added an RBI single in the sixth to make it 12-0, and run-scoring hits by Hicks and Connor in the top of the seventh closed out the scoring.

Cano picked up the win, going five innings and allowing just three hits on 51 pitches. He walked just one and finished his outing with six strikeouts.

Murphysboro finished the game with 18 hits after not playing for nine days.

"We came out and really had some quality at bats and we hit the ball hard,'' Brasel said. "We really made the pitcher work, which is important in these nine inning games, and we didn't miss many pitches.

"When something was left over the white part of the plate we put a pretty good swing on it."

No one swung it better than Connor, who went 5-for-5 with two doubles and three RBI. Hand, Hicks and Baker added three hits and two RBI apiece.

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