Legit takes down Bulldogs
Published 12:00 pm Monday, August 8, 2011
The heat was stifling and the two-hour time limit evaporated on Sunday.
It was the 13-year-olds’ Governor’s Cup championship game that would never end.
But it finally concluded on a bizarre play, giving Legit, a team of Vicksburg and Canton natives, the title trophy with an 11-10 victory over the West Monroe Bulldogs.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Robert Scott Foust’s RBI single lasered to left cut Legit’s lead to 11-10 and kept the bases loaded with one out.
Next batter Austin Booth battled Legit pitcher Cole Irby in a classic full-count battle with neither pitcher or batter giving ground.
But Irby’s third strike was dropped by Legit’s catcher, sending Booth scurrying to first. Foust had to advance to avoid the double play, but the throw beat both Foust sliding back and Booth for a game-ending double-up.
“We weren’t throwing to get him (the runner at first), but we were just throwing down (to first) to get the strikeout,” Legit coach Ben Street said. “These kids hit the ball all day long. But our pitching hurt us. Walk the bases loaded and that’s going to get you in trouble every time. We’ve had such good pitching in this tournament, but we didn’t today.”
The contest was marked by rallies as lead changed hands more times than a dollar bill.
In the top of the fifth and the Bulldogs leading 6-2, the Legit lead off with three straight singles and added two runs off a RBI single and a bases-loaded walk. Ford Adams ripped a two-run single to down the line. Gabriel Campbell, with two on, drilled the first offering he saw, a fastball right down the pipes, over the center field fence to complete a six-run rally.
Cole Mathes got back one of those runs with a RBI single in the bottom of the frame to cut the lead to 8-7.
In the sixth, Legit scored off a passed ball, but could not add more to a 9-7 lead.
The Bulldogs tied the game in the bottom of the frame at nine all, as Caleb Rowe ripped a two-run double off the wall.
Legit got a lucky bounce, as Irby’s tapper to the pitcher Rowe skipped out of his glove, allowing two runs to score and put Legit out front, 11-9, in the top of the seventh.