Post 346 shakes off slow start for easy state tournament win

Jul. 21—Despite the final score and some statistical heroics, Wayne Newton Post 346's eventual 10-2 win over South Bend Post 151 on Friday at the American Legion baseball state tournament was anything but easy.

For a while, anyway.

Cam Judson and Gunnar Langer combined to allow just one earned run while striking out nine and giving up seven mostly soft hits, and Tyler Will, Ty Stultz and Tucker Helton were 11 for 12 from the sixth, seventh and eighth spots in the batting order — the first two both 4 for 4, Helton with one less hit but with three RBI, the first two of them crucial — as the Terre Haute team pounded out 15 hits.

South Bend had taken a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, taking advantage of Post 346's only error of the game. And for three innings, Post 346 seemed willing to let their opponents keep that advantage.

Wayne Newton loaded the bases with one out in the top of the second, but didn't score. In the top of the third the first two Terre Haute batters walked and were bunted into scoring position by Logan Nicoson, but again two batters failed to drive anybody in.

"I was worried from the standpoint that we weren't executing with men on base," manager David Will said after the game.

"We pull through a lot of the time," said Judson. "We start getting timely hits [eventually] . . . I wasn't too worried, just controlling what I could control."

Like South Bend starter Austin Wittrock, Judson spent a couple of innings getting out of jams. He stranded South Bend's Kellen Demkovich after his double in the first that set up the run — the only hard-hit ball of the day, David Will said later — and came up with his first two strikeouts after South Bend's first two batters in the second inning reached base.

"Cam was getting ahead of most batters. He did a good job," the manager said later, and Judson got two more strikeouts in a one-two-three third inning.

Tyler Will led off the fourth inning with the second of his hits, and Stultz bounced a smash over the first baseman's head for a double. That brought up Helton, who had left those two teammates in scoring position in the second inning.

"My first at-bat I didn't do my job," Helton said after the game. "But I've been trying to drive the ball to right field [he's a right-handed hitter] and that's what I did later in the game today."

Helton's second time at bat resulted in a booming drive to the gap in right-center for a two-run double. Coy Edwards then bunted him to third and Ben Kearns drove him in with a sacrifice fly.

South Bend scored in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to 3-2, but with two out in the fifth an opposite-field homer by Ross Olsen was followed by consecutive hits by — you guessed it — Tyler Will, Stultz and Helton that made it 5-2.

South Bend got a leadoff hit in the bottom of the fifth, but second baseman Edwards ranged into shallow center field to catch a soft line drive that seemed destined to be a hit. The South Bend runner had the same thought, and was doubled off first base by Edwards' throw.

"That double play by Coy was a pivotal play," David Will said. "That was looking like another soft hit."

Post 346 got a gift run in the sixth when Bryson Carpenter got a bloop single, stole second, took third on a throwing error and scored on a wild pitch. In the seventh, one-out hits by you know who loaded the bases, Edwards hit a two-run single and Carpenter added a two-run double.

Judson was lifted after five innings to keep his pitch count low enough to return later in the tournament if his team lasts long enough — and they plan to do that.

"[Wittrock] was good. He threw hard and he threw strikes," said David Will, who pointed out that he'd entered the tournament with a glittering earned run average. "But if we can keep doing [what we did today], we can make a long run."

"We're ready to come back here and win it all," said Helton, reminding his team's second-place finish in last year's finals that were also at Kokomo's Highland Park. "Getting the first win out of the way is definitely good, and it got the jitters out of our newcomers."

Post 346 plays at 7:30 p.m. Sunday against the winner of Friday's late game between Rockport Post 254 and host Kokomo Post 6.

WAYNE NEWTON (AB-R-H-RBI) — Kearns cf 3-0-0-1, Carpenter lf 4-1-2-2, Nicoson dh 3-0-0-0, Judson p 0-0-0-0, Langer p 0-0-0-0, Jenkins 1b 3-0-0-0, Olsen c 4-1-1-1, Will ss 4-3-4-0, Stultz 3b 4-2-4-0, Helton rf 4-2-3-3, Edwards 2b 3-1-1-2. Totals 32-10-15-9.

SOUTH BEND (AB-R-H-RBI) — Kahl lf 3-0-1-0, Szajko ph 0-0-0-0, Singer 2b 3-1-0-0, J.Curylo 2b 1-0-0-0, Demkovich ss 3-0-1-0, Pettit c 2-0-0-1, Thompson c 1-0-0-0, Compton dh 3-1-1-0, Wittrock p-rf 0-0-0-0, Temple cf 2-0-1-0, Leliaert rf-p 2-0-1-1, Longbrake 3b 1-0-0-0, B.Curylo ph 1-0-0-0, Samuelson 1b 3-0-1-0. Totals 25-2-6-2.

Wayne Newton Post 346 000 321 4 — 10

South Bend Post 151 100 100 0 — 2

E — Stultz, Thompson. DP — WN 1. LOB — WN 8, SB 7. 2B — Demkovich, Stultz, Helton, Carpenter. HR — Olsen. SB — Kearns, Will, Carpenter, Edwards. SH — Nicoson, Edwards, Temple. SF — Kearns.

Wayne Newton IP H R ER BB SO

Judson (W) 5 5 2 1 1 5

Langer 2 1 0 0 1 4

South Bend IP H R ER BB SO

Wittrock 5 9 5 5 3 3

Leliaeert 2 6 5 4 1 1

HBP — by Judson (Longbrake), by Judson (Demkovich). WP — Leliaert. T — 2:04.

Next — Wayne Newton Post 346 (17-11) plays either Rockport or Kokomo at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Kokomo's Highland Park.