Harrisburg Post 167 wins 24th District, moves on to 5th Division Tournament

The Harrisburg Sons Of American Legion baseball team had home field advantage - for the most part - in the 24th District Tournament, held at Gibbs Field, where Post 167 was also the No. 1 seed this week.

Post 167 also trailed at the end of the first inning, including Wednesday night's rain-delayed title game, where Harrisburg got behind early, but battled back to beat Fairfield 8-6 and move on to the 5th Division Tournament, which will start Saturday in Fairfield.

Harrisburg trailed 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning, where Post 167 opened the flood gates, scoring seven runs on four hits and broke the game open en route to the win.

Bayden Ditterline, who went 3-for-3 with two RBI, led the inning off with a line drive single to and Nick Walker, who just replaced Andrew Bittle on the mound in the fourth, helped out his own cause with a single up the middle.

After Colby Morse walked to load the bases, Javie Beal ripped a rocket to centerfield, scoring Ditterline. Walker got caught in a run down trying to score, but both Morse and Beal advanced bases on the play. Gabe Fowler followed with a walk and Krayton Morse grounded out, but drove in his brother Colby and Ben Byrd reached on an error in left field, scoring Beal and Fowler.

After Cody Wieseman was hit by a pitcher and Bittle walked, Ditterline stepped up to the plate again and cleared the bases with a line drive to centerfield.

From there, with Bittle, Walker and Ditterline sharing mound duties, Post 167 displayed a bend, but don't break attitude as Fairfield threatened with a pair of runs in the fifth to cut the deficit in half and added a run in the sixth and seventh inning.

Fairfield Post 176 had one on and with the tying run at the plate as Ditterline was able to induced a ground out to Wiseman at second.

Spyder Dann covers prep and college sports for the Southern Illinois Local Media News Group. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.