ALTON – Warning to the remaining teams in the 2015 American Legion Great Lakes Regional baseball tournament:
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You overlook the Metro East Bears at your own peril.
The reason is simple: No matter how far behind they are or how down they appear, they simply will not go away.
Ask the Plover, Wis., Black Sox.
They seemingly had the Bears on the ropes and ready to deliver a knockout blow in their elimination game at Gordon Moore Park/Lloyd Hopkins Field Friday afternoon, holding a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the eighth and two out against a team that hadn't scored a run in their last 16 and two-thirds innings.
The Bears got off the deck and scored a run when Aaron Jackson drew a bases-loaded walk, then got a game-tying double in the bottom of the ninth from Nick Paulda before Drake Hampton singled to left to bring home Matt Zielonko with the winning run, eliminating the Black Sox 4-3.
The Bears will face Midland, Mich., at 7 p.m. Saturday in a semifinal game; Midland bounced back from 4-0 down with 10 runs in the last three innings to defeat Madison, Wis., 10-4 in Friday's nightcap. Madison will take on Elgin, Ill., who eliminated Troy, Ohio 7-2 Friday morning, at 4 p.m. Saturday. The finals are set for Sunday at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., with the winner advancing to Shelby, N.C., for the American Legion World Series beginning Aug. 13.
Needless to say, the comeback left the Bears' players and coaches ecstatic and very happy. “That was just a super comeback,” said Bears manager Ken Schaake. “They (Plover) have a really solid team; they were really making some great plays on us, but we never quit. We thought we could get a key hit that we needed, and we finally did.”
That hit came from Paulda, who lifted a ground-rule double to left-center that seemingly was going to leave the park with the bases loaded. “We hadn't scored for something like 17 innings (going back to the Bears' shutout loss to Madison the night before), but we knew were going to get a hit eventually,” Paulda said. “I got ahead in the count and got a good swing on the ball. It had enough to tie the game.
“It's definitely a big win for us, and we're not done yet. We've got to come out tomorrow and keep winning, so I guess the preparation begins now.”
Maverick McSpadin got the ball and went 6.1 innings before Drake Hampton came in and got some big outs down the stretch to keep the deficit to three runs. “We realized our season was on the line; we got out there and got the big plays we needed.”
Plover was making some big plays of their own as well; they turned four double plays to keep the Bears at bay and also got two big forceouts at third to cut the heart out of pair of Metro East rallies. The Black Sox scored twice in the fourth on Nate McHugh groundout that scored Tyler Nalback and a Jake Ligneza single to bring home Cal Giese to put them up 2-0, then scored again in the sixth when a grounder to second was mishandled and scored Alex Slowey to put them ahead 3-0.
The Bears finally broke through in the eighth when Paulda scored on a bases-loaded walk to Jackson to set up the big bottom of the ninth; Connor Melton led off by drawing a walk before McSpairn singled and Zielonko walked to load the bases, leading to Paulda's game-tying heroics. After his double that put Zielonko on third, Anthony Kindle was intentionally walked to load the bases and set up a possible force at home, but Hampton singled past a drawn-in infield to bring home Zielonko with the winning run.
More information on the tournament, as well as box scores and updated statistics, can be found at www.legion.org/baseball
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
