Vandalia Sr. Legion ends season after three tourney games

SALEM – Before the bottom of the sixth inning at the Sr. Legion District Tournament on Saturday, Vandalia’s players stood outside the dugout and tossed their bats onto the field.

Done to “wake up” the bats because Post 95 was struggling offensively while clinging to a 2-1 lead, Vandalia would go on to score once in the sixth, twice in the seventh and thrice in the eighth to walk away from the first-round game with an 8-1 win against Bridgeport.

“That’s the waking up the bat call,” said Mark Lewis, who was coaching the team in place of vacationing coach Luke Hohlt. “We were having trouble scoring, so we threw our bats on the field for a wake-up call.

“It’s more of a mental thing to get the kids lightened up and swinging better.”

The ensuing offense outburst saved a very strong outing by Ian Murrell, who pitched seven innings and struck out nine.

More importantly, however, Murrell worked quickly on the 90-plus-degree day. His only hiccup came in the fourth, when he threw 22 pitches and surrendered a run.

He would allow only two more runners after that and struck out the side in the sixth.

“It’s a hot day, and (pitching quickly) keeps the fielders on their toes. It was huge to go through a game that quickly,” Lewis said. “(Had he faced lots batters each inning) he probably would have thrown two innings.”

Murrell’s blanking of Bridgeport’s hitters, combined with the ritual, seemed to work for Post 95, as Brady Huber led off the bottom of the sixth with a single, and Mitch Wolff and Dylan Bone later followed with singles of their own to drive Huber home.

Huber earlier drove in the team’s first run by reaching on an error in the bottom of the first, and Bone scored a second run after being plated after a double.

The rally continued an inning later after the first three batters reached base, and Blaine Scholes scored on a well-executed double steal.

“We are fortunate to have speed on the team, and our game plan coming out was to run the bases hard,” Lewis said. “We didn’t want to miss any opportunity to have runners in scoring position.”

Huber would bring home Goldsmith on a sacrifice fly later in the inning.

Vandalia would use two singles, a walk, four stolen bases and a couple of wild pitches to manufacture three runs in the eighth to build a seemingly insurmountable 8-1 lead.

Bone struck out two and allowed just one base runner over the game’s final two innings for Post 95.

“I was very, very happy with the way we turned things around,” Lewis said.

Vandalia vs. Salem

After turning a double play to end the top of the fourth inning Saturday night, Salem looked to capitalize on its new-found momentum when its offense came to the plate.

Through the first three innings of the second-round game at the Sr. Legion District Tournament in Salem, Vandalia’s Kyle Hawkins and Salem’s Brandon Quandt were locked in a pitcher’s duel, with each pitcher having allowed just two base runners.

Salem, however, opened the bottom of the fourth with a double, and a single to the gap brought home the game’s first run three batters later.

Those four batters combined to see just four pitches from Hawkins, and that lone run would prove to be enough for Salem in what would become a 6-0 win.

“That was it,” Lewis said. “They had more big hits than us. When we had scoring opportunities, we would get caught stealing or caught in a rundown.”

The first good scoring opportunity Post 95 had actually came before the previously-mentioned double play.

Cy Perfetti led off the inning with a seven-pitch walk, and he would steal second before Dathan Berning reached on a fielder’s choice. Perfetti, however, was picked off during that play.

Vandalia threatened with more runners in the top of the sixth, but again ran itself into trouble.

Goldsmith reached on error, stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball, but when Quandt threw a wild pitch, Goldsmith tried to score but was tagged out easily for the second out of the inning.

A fly ball to center field the next at-bat may have been deep enough to score Goldsmith, but it instead left runners on first and third and ended the inning.

Another Post 95 runner was picked off in the seventh and yet another was caught stealing in the eighth.

Lewis, however, said he never considered going against what he considers one of the team’s best assets – speed.

“Small ball is our game, and we had to keep playing our game,” he said. “I thought there were a few plays that could have gone our way, but they didn’t.”

The coach also stuck to his original game plan on the use of his starting pitcher.

Hawkins displayed good control through the first five innings, but after Salem hit a pair of home runs to take a 4-0 lead in the sixth, Hawkins began showing signs of fatigue.

Lewis opted to bring Hawkins back into the game for the seventh, but he allowed a double and a home run to the first two batters.

Despite appearing gassed after the homer, Hawkins was left in the game. When his next pitch zoomed high and inside, Lewis finally made a move, but he said he did not feel he left Hawkins in the game too long.

“The truth is that we are short on pitchers,” Lewis said. “He is one of our aces, and we needed him to reach down and dig deep.

“He was around 80 pitches when he gave up the two home runs (the second homer was the 80th pitch), and I felt he had a couple more innings in him.”

Ben Sperry relieved Hawkins and did not surrender any additional runs, but he did allow runners to reach scoring position in the seventh and eighth innings.

Vandalia did not get its first hit until the eighth, when Carr sent a single by the shortstop. Perfetti and Berning would later single in the ninth, but Post 95 ended the game with the bases loaded.

“(Quandt) had a very good fastball and a curveball that kept us off-balance,” Lewis said. “He mixed up his speeds and worked his locations.”

Post 95 was eliminated from the tournament on Sunday, falling to Teutopolis, 7-3.