Staff report
GREENVILLE — Sidney Post 217 continued to cruise through the Region 2 Baseball Tournament Thursday night with its second straight run-rule verdict, and it leaves the local nine just one win away from a berth in the State Legion Tournament starting July 27 in Lancaster.
Sidney rode the outstanding pitching of Brett McEldowney to a 10-0 run-rule victory over Troy in the winner’s bracket final Thursday night, and will play again tonight at 7 p.m. — this time at Duke Park in Troy — against the winner of Friday night’s Troy-Piqua game.
Whoever wins that game will have to beat Sidney twice to prevent Post 217 from advancing to the state tournament.
McEldowney fanned 13 in the Thursday game, which ended after eight innings. He walked only one and allowed just five hits.
Sidney, now 30-14, had 14 hits, with McEldowney getting three of them. Jackson Hobbs added two singles and Kyle Subler, Josh Nixon and Cam Clark had doubles.
“You are always concerned as a coach when you have delays and postponements,” said Sidney coach Jim Koewler, referring to Wednesday’s weather-related suspension of the Troy game after two outs in the bottom of the first. “But that was put to rest when McEldowney singled on the first pitch when play resumed (Thursday) night. Brett not only had three timely singles, but pitched one heck of a game. When you strike out 13 and walk only one, allow five hits and get three hits yourself, that’s a pretty darn good night’s work.”
Sidney took a 2-0 lead in that first inning, when Austin McLain led off with a single and Drew Wehrman reached on a sacrifice bunt when the pitcher couldn’t come up with the ball. Subler then sacrificed both runners up, and Clark drilled one over the centerfielder’s head for a two-run double.
When play resumed 24 hours later, McEldowney made it 3-0 with the first of his three hits.
It stayed at 3-0 until the fifth inning when Sidney put up four more runs to nail down the verdict.
Wehrman walked to start it off, then Subler followed with his double. Josh Nixon then hit a dribbler in front of the plate and was able to beat it out, with the runners holding to load the bases.
Clark then walked to force in a run, and Hobbs followed with a two-run single to make it 5-0. Dakota Bollinger then singled in the fourth run of the inning for a 7-0 bulge.
An inning later, Post 217 added two more. Nixon doubled ahead of singles by McEldowney and Hobbs, and after a walk to Bollinger, Daniel Berning singled.
Sidney then ended it with a run in the bottom of the eighth on singles by Clark and McEldowney, a walk to Hobbs and a walk-off single by Bollinger.
“We’re playing with a lot of enthusiasm right now,” said Koewler. “We hope to keep that up for tonight’s game. We hope to see a lot of Sidney fans in Troy tonight.”
The linescore:
Troy`000 000 00`0`5`1
Sidney`300 042 01`10`14`0
UPCOMING GAMES
Tonight — Region 2 tournament finals, vs. Piqua-Troy winner, 7 p.m. at Duke Park in Troy
Wednesday thru Sunday — Wolverine-Buckeye Classic in Toledo
July 27-31 — State Legion Tournament in Lancaster
