American Legion: Edwardsvile snaps Post 167 seven game winning streak

Posted July 20, 2015 11:00 pm

Tuesday's 5th District American Legion Tournament contest between Harrisburg and Edwardsville wasn't short on drama. It wasn't short on runs either.

Edwardsville survived a back-and-forth affair, coming from behind to beat Post 167 9-7 in Carmi.

The loss snaps a seven game winning streak for the District 24 champions as they are in search of their first 5th District title since 2001. That same season, current Harrisburg girls' head coach Jake Stewart took home Most Valuable Player honors.

After Harrisburg scored a run in the top of the eighth to knot the game at 7, Edwardsville flipped the script in the bottom portion of the inning, scoring two off a two-run home run to preserve the win.

Harrisburg head coach Doug Emery called it a classic American Legion game against two very good teams.

"It's a tough loss, but we played well," Emery said. "There is nothing to be ashamed of. We battled all nine innings, but it was just a great team and we got beat. We have to come back and battle tomorrow."

Harrisburg opened the game with a two-run bomb to left field by Noah Vallette, who also got the start on the mound Tuesday, in helping his own cause.

Edwardsville plated a run in the bottom of the second to trim the deficit to one and took a 5-2 lead after Vallette gave up a grand slam in the bottom of the fourth.

Down, but not out, Post 167 battled back to get a run in the top of the fifth when Bryce Emery reached base on an error and later scored on a base hit over third base by Vallette.

Edwardsville tacked on another run in the bottom of the fifth to go up 6-3, but Matthew Phipps, Monday's winning pitcher against Teutopolis, tied the game at 6 when his two-run home run tied the ballgame at 6.

Edwardsville got one back however, in the bottom half of the inning, but not before Harrisburg put on the rally caps one more time.

It was a base hit by Austin Hefner that scored Drew Woolcott to tie the game at seven, before Edwardsville eventually went ahead for good with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the eighth.

Vallette worked 5 2/3 innings, allowing six runs (four earned) on three hits, while striking out six and walking nine on 113 pitches.

Emery relieved Vallette, suffering the hard luck loss, as the soon-to-be Harrisburg senior struck out three, walked three and gave up three runs on three hits over 3 1/3 innings.

"Overall, I felt like Edwardsville made the plays," Emery added. "We hit a lot of balls hard, probably six or eight that they caught and made the play on. I think the score might have been a little different if just one or two of those balls gets through. I think they outplayed us a little defensively, but I wasn't discouraged by our pitching and I thought our hitting was good. They just made the plays.

"So many plays and little thing I hate to lose," Emery said. "But what an effort I am getting out of this team. The good thing is everybody will be back next year. We're fairly young and games like this will make all of them better."

Harrisburg will return to Carmi today (Wednesday) to take on the winner of Herrin or Carmi, in a game scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

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

Fifth Division American Legion Baseball Playoffs

July 20-25 at Carmi Monday Game 1: Harrisburg 7, Teutopolis 5 Game 2: Mt. Vernon 3, Herrin 0 Game 3: Murphysboro 10, Carmi 2 Tuesday Game 4: Edwardsville 9, Harrisburg 7 Game 5: Murphysboro 10, Mt. Vernon 8 Game 6: Herrin vs. Carmi (n) Wednesday Game 7: Teutopolis vs. Mt. Vernon, 11:30 a.m. Game 8: Harrisburg vs. Game 6 winner, 3:30 p.m. Game 9: Edwardsville vs. Murpysboro, 7:30 p.m. Thursday Game 10: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 3:30 p.m. Game 11: Game 10 winner vs. Game 9 loser, 7:30 p.m.