by TYLER HATHAWAY
Despite suffering its first loss of the season on Saturday and being put in a win or go home situation, Greece Post 468 rallied to take two straight including a 14-2 victory in Game 3 on Monday night to claim a second straight American Legion District 7 title.
“It feels great,” said coach Nelson Madrid. “Yesterday we split, but today I knew as we were walking into the dugout today that we were ready. It feels great that we won back-to-back and are representing District 7.”
“It feels amazing,” said pitcher Zach Allen. “It’s a moment that we all wanted collectively as a team before we even played a single game, it feels great.”
Greece Post (18-1-1) lost its first game of the season on Sunday afternoon in Game 1, falling 2-0. The Cougars won Game 2 later that afternoon 4-2 to force Monday’s decisive tilt.
“We got a pretty resilient group,” said Allen. “We were pretty embarrassed after the game one loss, and we came back in focused today just trying to smash these guys. We knew we were way better than them, it was just a matter of showing up to the ballpark and playing better than them.”
“The score today showed what we can do when our backs are against the wall,” said Madrid. “We had all the confidence in the world, we knew the type of players we had. We knew we were gonna come ready. It was one game, we came back and got ready to play today and we did.”
After Ely Fagan got out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first, the confidence that Madrid spoke about in his team showed. Greece Post quickly put up six runs in the bottom of the frame. Ely Fagan scored once more in the second inning, but Greece pushed across two more runs in the bottom of the second and six more runs in the fourth to put the game out of reach.
Allen threw four-and-a-third innings, striking out three and only allowing three hits.
“I was trying to get ahead as best as I can, giving my team behind me the best chance to succeed,” said Allen. “Give my team the best shot that I can and try to push us into states and I did that today.”
The three hits and two walks that Allen gave up came in the first eight batters he faced, and after that he retired the last he faced.
“I was just getting back to my game,” said Allen. “I know I gotta live on the corners, so at the end of the day I was just focused on hitting my spots, making better pitches, and just executing better.”
“It was outstanding because he did not have his best stuff to start,” said Madrid. “He had to adjust to a tough zone. He did that, and got his swagger and confidence as the game went on. He held the fort down as our offense took over.”
Jaden Madrid and Tyler Stack each finished the game with two singles and two RBI. Madrid scored twice and also drew a walk, while Stack scored once. Joe Sanna had a bases clearing double in the fourth inning and finished with four RBI, a run scored, and a walk drawn. Jeffrey Broadnax had an RBI single and a run scored. Connor Gresens scored three times and had an RBI and a single. Kaleb Juliano had an RBI, two drawn walks and two scored runs. Bryceton Berry drew two walks and scored twice. Troy McPhearson threw the final two outs for Greece.
For Ely Fagan (12-8), Colby Wilson had an RBI single in the first inning that got Ely Fagan on the board. Alex Garcia had an RBI double in the second inning that scored Connor Nguyen after he got on via a walk. Justin Angora scored a run and got on via a first-inning single.
Greece Post moves on to the six-team state tournament that begins next Tuesday.
“It’s a great feeling,” said Madrid. “We experienced it last year. We know what’s ahead. It’s an exciting time for these guys to play some more ball before they head off to college.”
Leave a Reply