EDWARDSVILLE – The Metro East Bears came close to getting to the 90th American Legion World Series.
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It took a two-run top of the 11th inning to send Rockport, Ind., to a 4-3 win over the Bears in Sunday afternoon's final of the American Legion Great Lakes Regional tournament. The Bears had a chance to tie it up in the bottom of the 11th, scoring once and having runners at first and second before Rockport reliever Corey Ebelhar struck out Cole Cimarolli after taking over for starting pitcher Jessie Stallings, who had gone 10.2 innings and threw more than 170 pitches in the contest.
The win sent Rockport as to the Legion World Series that gets under way Thursday in Shelby, N.C.; it was the second straight season the Bears had ended the tournament as runners-up in the tournament.
“He (Stallings) did a really nice job,” said Rockport manager Jim Haaff, who saw his team win its' 32nd straight game. “We left him in a little longer than we normally do, but it's winding down to the end of the year, so consequently, he wanted to stay and we let him stay.
“”We played good defense today; our shortstop (Kobe Stephens) made several good plays for us today. He's been quite a player for us and he'll be missed.”
The Bears had made an big run in the tournament after having been off for two-and-a-half weeks after being eliminated by Highland in the District 22 playoffs in July. “Nobody gave them a chance,” said Bears manager Ken Schaake. “Anyone who had seen the end of their (playoffs) in (mid-July) the way they were playing and for the to be off two weeks, no one gave them a chance and they proved everyone wrong.
“They're good baseball players; they're solid. There was no weak link; these were solid guys. We lost two catchers and we pulled Steven Patten aside and said, 'we need you to catch'. Looking at him, you would not know he hadn't caught since last summer at the junior Legion level. He came in and stepped him and kept us in games. We're really proud of him. We had guys who had been playing in St. Louis who decided they wanted to play Legion ball this year. We had guys who wanted to play Legion baseball. Those are the kind of players that are going to give you every effort.”
That they did; the Bears jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first thanks to a Cimarolli single and came home thanks to a two-out RBI single. Rockport countered with a run in the third when Trevor Zink doubled home Stephens, who had walked to start the inning before taking the lead in the sixth when Chad Meyer singled and came home on a Gant Miller double off starting pitcher Jake Garella. Back-to-back seventh-inning doubles from Mitchell Krebs and Tyler Stamer tied the game up at 2-2 and the Bears had a chance to win it in the ninth when Stamer singled and went to third on a Chance Foss double down the left-field line, but Stallings struck out Devin Colley and got Patten to ground to third, then Stallings put down a potential rally in the bottom of the 10th to keep the game tied.
In the 11th Miller reached on an error and went OT second on an error on a sacrifice bunt from Zach Hopewell to put runners on first and second. Stephens singled to load the bases and Miller scored on a grounder to third to break the tie. Spencer Deom then hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Hopewell to make it 4-2. The Bears pulled to 4-3 thanks to a Patten RBI single with two out that scored Foss that put him and Jacob Kanallakan on base before Stallings gave way to Eblehar, who struck out Cimarolli to end the game.
Garella was 2-for-5 for the Bears with a double, Cimarolli 1-for-6 with a run scored, Clayton 1-for-5, Drake Hampton 1-for-5 with a RBI, Mitchell Krebs 1-for-4 with a run scored, Stamer 2-for-5 with a RBI, Foss 2-for-4 with a run scored, Patten 1-for-5 with a RBI and Kanallakan 1-for-1. Zink was 2-for-5 for Rockport with a double and two RBIs, Stephens 1-for-5 with a run scored, Deom a RBI, Meyer 1-for-4 with a double and run scored, Rowe 1-for-5, Hopewell 1-for-4 with a run scored.
Stallings got the win, going 10.2 innings and conceding three earned runs on 12 hits while striking out six. Colley took the loss, going five innings and giving up two runs on two hits while fanning two.
The Bears were eliminated at 20-8 on the year while Rockport went to 32-1 on the season, having won their 32nd game in a row.
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