By BRENT FEENEY
CARMI – The Metro East Bears American Legion baseball team found a way to win in their Illinois American Legion Fifth Division Tournament opener.
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The Bears got a two-run homer from Edwardsville's Maverick McSparin in the bottom of the eighth to take a see-saw 9-7 win over Harrisburg to advance in the tournament on Tuesday. The final is set for 11 a.m. Friday, with a second game (if necessary) scheduled for 2 p.m.; the tournament winner advances to next week's Illinois state tournament in Wheaton.
Murphysboro advanced by defeating Herrin 10-8 in the game immediately following the Bears' win.
“We struggled a bit,” said Bears manager Ken Schaake. “It took awhile for us to get untracked and we made a few mistakes that we usually don't make. But as I told the team after the game, even after going over the mistakes we made, I said that the bottom line is that we won.
"We competed pretty well; we just can't take things for granted, especially the deeper we get. Harrisburg has a good team.”
Eleven of the game's 16 runs came via the home run, including a fourth-inning grand slam from Aaron Jackson that gave the Bears the lead, but Harrisburg refused to fold, scoring six times in the seventh to take the lead back, but the Bears got the lead back in the bottom of the seventh before Harrisburg tied it up in the eighth.
That led to the Bears' winning runs in the bottom of the inning. Nick Paulda reached base on an infield hit before McSparin's two=run shot that proved to be the winner. Harrisburg had a two-run homer in the first and a three-run shot in the fourth.
The Bears only need to win twice more to advance, but Schaake said as the tournament progresses, the stakes get higher and higher. “You move on to the next game, and you realize things get harder and the stakes higher,” Schaake said. “But we have a good team and we'll be ready.”
