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American Legion: Survive & Advance

Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest.

For Harrisburg American Legion Post 167, they had to grind - a little extra - against Carmi in the District 24 Tournament Sunday.

Thanks to an Adam Ninness walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning, Harrisburg, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, survived a scare from Carmi winning 4-3.

Ninness' bloop single into shallow right field was part of a two-out rally in the bottom of the frame as Austin Henfer led the inning off with a ground out to short and Jordan Gould followed suit with a strikeout.

Britton Riden tried to put the game away himself with what appeared to be a solo home run, but fell short, bouncing off the 300-foot sign in right field. Riden was held to a double and then scored on Ninness hit.

In the back-and-forth affair that saw Post 167 (14-5) trail 1-0 and then take a 3-1 lead only to see it disappear in the top of the seventh, Ninness was glad to be a part of the classic matchup.

"It has to happen somehow, so mind as well," he said in regards to being part of the game winner. "I Miscues in the field just about did Post 167 in as a pair of errors in the top of the fourth allowed Carmi Post 224 to take a 1-0 lead.

Post 167 finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth when Noah Vallette led the inning off with a single and advanced to second on a bloop single to shallow right center from Patrick Bittle.

Harrisburg followed that up with Austin Hefner being hit by a pitch to load the bases and Riden stepped up again and delivered a two RBI single down the first base line and Ninness' sacrifice-fly scored Hefner.

Carmi was able to tie the game at 3-all with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh as an errant throw to first from Vallette on a bunt scored one run and later in the inning, Eldorado's Stanton Hathaway's sacrifice-fly to center squared the game.

The win however, was an emotional one for Harrisburg head coach Doug Emery, who had to fight back tears when talking about the victory.

"It was a good game, we just hung in there and battled," Emery said. "Britton stepped up and got that good hit off the wall there and I thought it was out, but we played super good and I'm just really proud of the kids."

Riden paced the Post 167 offense at the plate, going 3-for-5 with two RBI, while Bryce Emery went 3-for-5 as well with a double.

Vallette finished 2-for-4, while Drew Woolcott, Gould, Hefner and Ninness all had one hit. Ninness finished his day with two RBI as well.

Vallette got the win in relief, working three innings as he allowed no runs on one hit, while striking out five and walked one.

Bryce Emery got the start and went seven innings, allowing three runs on five hits, finishing with four strikeouts and two walks.

In the District 24 Tournament, teams are only play seven innings and not the normal nine. Also, teams are only allowed to pitch 12 innings over a three days and while Emery admits he had to use two of his arms a little more than he wanted too, it's not an alarming concern just yet.

"It is a concern, but we're deep in pitching, so we'll be ok," Emery said. "For us, we have to take it one inning and one game at a time. Noah can probably come in and pitch (tonight), but he doesn't have too. We have several other pitchers with Woolcott, Gould, Hefner and Bittle and even Bryce can come back later. We're going to be ok.

"The pitching was excellent," Emery added." Bryce got into a little trouble in the seventh, but overall the pitching stood out to. Noah came in and shut the door those last three innings. Bryce played with a hurt ankle and I just can't say enough how proud I am of all of them."

Harrisburg will now play the winner of Metropolis or Fairfield tonight at 7 p.m. in Carmi.

Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.

24th District American Legion Baseball Tournament

<p><strong>24th District  American Legion Baseball Tournament</strong><br /><strong>at Carmi</strong><br /><strong>Saturday, July 9</strong><br />GAME 1 — Carmi (4) , Carrier Mills (5) 6 <br />GAME 2 — Metropolis (2) 3, McLeansboro (7) 2<br />GAME 3 — Fairfield (3) 12 vs. Shawneetown (6) 1<br />Sunday, July 10<br />GAME 4 — Harrisburg (1) 4, Carmi 3<br />GAME 5 — Metropolis 12 Fairfield 2<br />GAME 6 — McLeansboro vs. Shawneetown (n)<br /><strong>Monday, July 11</strong><br />GAME 7 — Carrier Mills vs. Fairfield, 1 p.m.<br />GAME 8 — Carmi vs. McLensboro/Shawneetown, 4 p.m.<br />GAME 9 — Harrisburg vs. Metropolis, 7 p.m.<br /><strong>Tuesday, July 12</strong><br />GAME 10 — Game 8 winner vs. Game 7 winner, 4 p.m.<br />GAME 11 — Game 9 loser vs. Game 10 winner, 7 p.m.<br /><strong>Wednesday, July 13</strong><br />GAME 12 — Game 9 winner vs. Game 11 winner, 4 p.m.<br />GAME 13 — Game 12 winner vs. Game 12 loser, 7 p.m. (if necessary)<br /><br /></p>