Post 95 ousted from district tourney after controversial week

Regardless of the outcome of Post 95’s run in the district tournament, there was an indication that this year’s postseason madness would leave a bad taste in the mouth of Vandalia fans.

At the completion of the regular season, Post 95 thought it had a record of 7-3, with the most wins in the district, but would place second, as T-Town posted a higher winning percentage with a record of 6-2, and Salem would place third at 6-3.

However, Salem objected, saying that when it plays doubleheaders, only the first game counts in the standings and the second game is merely an exhibition. And single games that are nine innings are final after the seventh inning; the final two innings are only for fun. Both setups were both new and strange to Post 95 coach Steve Hosick, who had not heard of Salem’s way of doing things prior to last week.

According to Salem and the league, one of Vandalia’s wins over Salem did not count. Therefore, Vandalia’s record dropped to 6-3, and T-Town failed to make up a district game that was rained out so it took a forfeit to drop to 6-3, putting Vandalia, T-Town and Salem in a three-way tie for first.

T-Town defeated Salem and Vandalia this season, so they took the No. 1 seed, and Salem beat Vandalia last week, to take the No. 2 seed, and drop Vandalia to a No. 3 seed and force Post 95 to have to play and win two games on Saturday to have a good shot at winning the tournament.

With the No. 3 seeding, Vandalia opened the tournament in Robinson against Lawerence County, a team Vandalia swept in mid-June.

Hosick had a plan going into the game to pitch Caleb Randle for four or five innings, knowing that he could keep the game close, coming off a strong outing against Effingham the week before.

Randle and the Vandalia defense didn’t get off to a perfect start, giving up two runs in the top of the first.

"We got fly balls that are in the air for a while, and we don’t get underneath them. We don’t even touch some balls that are hit to the outfield," Hosick said. "They should have never had two runs. We didn’t play good defense behind Caleb. We know that when he pitches, they’re going to hit the ball. We did not even make ordinary plays."

Not only was Vandalia’s defense shaky to start the game, but the baserunning was also careless at times.

Colby Cooper led off the bottom of the first inning with a single to center and Ryan Thiele hit into a would-be routine fielder’s choice to the pitcher. Cooper advanced to second, but rounded the bag too much and was thrown out by the first baseman for a 1-3-6 double play.

Baserunning struggles continued in the bottom of the second inning when Cody Wimberly was picked off first base.

Vandalia pulled within one in the bottom of the third as Cooper drew a two-out walk, moved up to second on a failed pickoff attempt by the catcher and came into score on an error by the shortstop, which also allowed Thiele to reach base.

Thiele got to second on the error and moved up to third on a passed ball. He tried, but failed, to score on another passed ball as the catcher was able to throw him out with the pitcher covering home.

Wimberly’s solo home run to center field in the bottom of the fourth inning tied the game 2-2.

Following the rough start, Randle and the Vandalia defense settled down to get through the fifth inning without any more blemishes.

Hosick’s plan for Randle had worked, but he sent him back out to the hill for the sixth inning. By then Randle didn’t have much that Lawerence County hadn’t seen. It opened the inning with a leadoff home run, followed with a double and another homer, putting Lawerence County up 5-2.

Kyle Hawkins was brought on to pitch and got out of the inning.

Vandalia had a chance to score in the bottom of the sixth with the bases loaded, but a groundball back to the pitcher induced a 1-2-3 double play and a pop out ended Post 95’s scoring threat.  

Wimbery drove in another run in the eighth to make it 5-3, and Hawkins scored on an error in the ninth to make it 5-4 with one out and Cooper on first. Thiele singled to center, putting the tying run in scoring position, but Reed Cerrutti hit into a double play to end the game. It was Vandalia’s fourth double play of the afternoon.

The loss pitted Vandalia against T-Town on Sunday afternoon, with its season on the line.

Luke Murfin toed the rubber for Vandalia on Sunday. Post 95 split with T-Town early in the season, both games being pitchers’ duels.

Murfin was sensational, allowing just five baserunners and one run in six innings. However, Vandalia’s offense couldn’t do much at the plate, getting just one hit in the first six innings.

In the top of the seventh, things got a bit out of control. Jared Winters went down on strikes to end the inning, dropping him to 0-for-3 for the day.  As he stepped across home plate, walking toward the dugout with his head down, he lifted his arms to waist-level in frustration. The home plate umpire immediately ejected him from the game. Hosick questioned the umpires reasoning for ejecting Winters before being ejected himself. Following the game, Hosick said the umpire thought he heard Winters say something under his breath.

"Jared Winters did not say anything to that umpire,’ Hosick said.

Playing with only eight players, Vandalia was forced to take the field in the bottom of the seventh with two outfielders and would have a ghost out in Winters’ spot in the lineup should Vandalia bat around.

T-Town was able to score another run in the seventh to make it 2-0.

Zach Thompson reached base on an error to open the eighth inning, and Matt Hoffman followed with a walk. Randle reached on another error that allowed Thompson to score and make it a 2-1 game.

T-Town got the run back in the bottom of the eighth, 3-1.

Post 95 had two out and a runner on first when Winters’ former spot came up in the lineup, ending the game, and reigniting Vandalia’s frustration over the questionable ejection.

"It’s frustrating, obviously, how it all ended," Hosick said. "We shot ourselves in the foot on Saturday and it just didn’t pan out the way we wanted it to today."

Hosick has said throughout the year that this may be his final season as coach of the Senior Legion team. His youngest son, Andy, is no longer age-eligible, and Hosick has been involved with Legion baseball for 25 years. Despite the reason to stay or go, returning is still up in the air.

"I love this game. I love being out here with these kids. I love when the former players stop by the dealership," Hosick said.