Clutch relief sends Post 334 into the district for a 12th straight year
A clutch four-inning relief performance by right-hander Alex Williams enabled the Post 334 American Legion baseball club to beat Cooper 10-6 for a two-game sweep of its best-of-three playoff series. And with the win, a 12th straight appearance next week in the 10th District tournament.
The victory followed a 10-0 first-game win in the series by Post 334 the night before on its home field, Wintercrest West. In this second game, Post 334 found it much tougher, though it fired out to a 3-0 top-of-the-first-inning lead. Starting pitcher Ian Andrews, however, had trouble, giving up three walks and three runs in the bottom of the first.
Willie “The Turk” Heiser came on and also had trouble in the fourth by issuing a pair of walks, then a three-run homer to the No. 3 hitter, a homer that gave Cooper its first lead of the game 6-5. Heiser stayed on for two innings, but when he issued consecutive walks to start the sixth with Post 334 back in from 7-6, he was lifted in favor of Williams, who forced the next three batters to pop out to end the threat.
Williams stayed on to the finish, giving up just three hits, two walks, while striking out one. He induced a game-ending double play ground ball to second baseman Sammy Smith to finish his best night of the summer on the mound.
At the plate, Post 334 did a little bit of this and a little bit of that to score its runs. Three hits by red hot Jeremy Oakley certainly helped, so did a safety squeeze bunt by Smith in the fourth to score Kirk Funfar, who had led off the inning with a triple. Funfar, a fleet-footed right fielder, was credited with delivering the eventual game-winning run with a fifth-inning sacrifice fly, a run that gave Post 334 the lead for keeps 7-6. He also drove in the eighth run with a single in the seventh inning and scored the ninth run on a Kyle Waterman sacrifice fly in the ninth.
Post 334 now heads up I94 for its annual tournament weekend in Jamestown, N.D. and another meeting with White Cloud and the herd of bison on the town hill. It returns to local action July 22 at Eden Prairie High School when it plays a first round game against a team to be named this weekend from the North End League at noon.
Posted: July 15th, 2010