79ERS ADVANCE TO STATE ON STUNNING WALK-OFF

Tabor gives Post 152 all it can handle in its quest to win Region 4B and advance to state, but the 79ers got the job done — in thrilling fashion

To quote legendary Los Angeles Dodgers play-by-play announcer Vin Scully, “I don’t believe what I just saw.”

OK — it might not have been on the same level as the dramatic home run by a hobbled Kirk Gibson that won Game 1 of the World Series against the Oakland A’s back in 1988 that resulted in the famous call by the late, great Scully.

But his words no doubt resonated with fans of the Post 152 Junior Legion (17-under) team after they watched the 79ers come from behind to stun Tabor in improbable fashion.

Trailing their Bon Homme County rival 11-6 in the final inning of a decisive Region 4B battle Tuesday evening, July 29, Post 152 was down to its final two outs before rattling off five-straight runs to tie the game at 11.

Then, two innings later, the 79ers completed the comeback thanks to a 2-RBI double by Tayden Kerrigan that turned a 12-11 deficit into a 13-12 walk-off win that sends the team that the American Legion recognizes as Scotland/Menno/Freeman Canistota (SMFC) to the state tournament in just its first year as a 17-under program.

SMFC will go to Milbank this weekend with a 22-2 record and will face Sioux Falls Post 911 — a Sioux Falls Christian team that is 14-7 — at approximately 12:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 8.

Tabor Post 183 finishes its season 10-5.

Last Wednesday morning, less than 16 hours after his team’s stunning walk-off win, 79ers head coach Dustin Tschetter was still trying to find the words to describe it.

“One of the craziest games I’ve ever been part of,” said the coach, who watched his team play uncharacteristically sloppy ball in the top of the seventh that appeared to be a self-inflicted dagger. Tabor’s four runs that inning turned a 7-6 lead into an 11-6 advantage, with Post 152 down to its final three outs.

“For us to play like we did in the top of the seventh and then come back like that is pretty remarkable,” Tschetter said. “We found a way — that’s all I can tell you.”

Post 152’s win over Tabor was its third of the two-day, four-team round robin tournament that uses the best record — and a series of tiebreakers if necessary — to determine who advances to state.

The 79ers defeated Wagner 16-1 on Monday, July 28 and then beat Winner/Colome 14-2 earlier on Tuesday, setting up its clash with Tabor.

Expected showdown

Like hot and juicy air before a storm, SMFC’s clash with Tabor had all the ingredients of a memorable event well before the first pitch. The teams have a recent history of postseason battles and split their two regular season games this summer — Tabor winning 7-4 on June 11 and Post 152 winning 12-0 on July 4.

But adding additional intrigue to last week’s Region 4B game was the fact that, one week earlier, the 79ers Senior Legion team wiped the floor with Tabor 19-0 in its Region 4B championship to get to its own state tournament.

Tabor was no doubt out for blood and eager to turn the tables on its home field.

And it almost did in a drama-filled game even beyond the wild finish.

Both teams came out swinging against top hurlers — Tannen Auch for SMFC and Madden Merkwan for Tabor — and back and forth they went early.

Tabor — a strong hitting team up and down its lineup — led 1-0 after the top of the first, SMFC led 2-1 going into the second, Tabor went up 3-2 in the top of the third, and the 79ers then tied it at 3-3 in the bottom of the third before building a 5-3 lead in the fourth.

That’s when Tabor coach Gary Kortan protested the game because SMFC was using Riley Keppen at catcher — a Scotland player who also plays for Scotland/Menno’s VFW 14-under team that was competing in its own postseason.

Kortan claimed Keppen’s play at the Junior Legion level was in violation of dual roster rules.

But Tschetter told The Courier that the coaching staff had previously received the OK from both the American Legion and VFW that Keppen could play for Post 152. After Kortan’s protest and a phone call by Doug Freidel, the American Legion Region 4B representative at the game, the 79ers were given two options:

Keppen could remain in the game but would then be ineligible for the rest of the 14-under postseason, or he could be pulled.

Tschetter believes Kortan’s protest was a tactic to give his team an advantage when it needed one. After all, the Tabor coach didn’t take issue with Keppen being in the game until the fourth inning, when his team was down 5-3.

“Down two (runs), Gary knew his team was in trouble,” Tschetter said. “He knew he needed to do something to try to get some momentum back.”

The 79ers ended up pulling Keppen and adjusting their infield makeup, which disrupted what was Post 152’s best defensive arrangement, but also the rhythm of the game.

Tabor went on to score one in the fifth and three in the sixth to take a 7-5 lead, and while SMFC got one back in the bottom of the sixth to make it 7-6, Tabor was clearly in control. And when it capitalized on several pitching and defensive miscues in the top of the seventh to open up that 11-6 lead, an out-of-sorts 79ers team returned to the dugout dejected — and that’s what makes its comeback so remarkable.

The rally

It started with back-to-back singles by Oliver Waltner and Auch to begin the bottom of the seventh and then, following an out, Riley Gall drew a walk to load the bases.

That’s when Tabor was forced to pull Merkwan because of the 105-max pitch count and brought in Major Aarstad in relief — a strong pitcher in his own right. But Aarstad gave up a walk to Logun Pankratz that scored Waltner from third to make it 11-7 and gave the 79ers a ray of hope, although Aarstad struck out the next batter and Tabor was one out away from the region title and a state tournament berth.

That’s when the real drama unfolded.

With the 79ers back to the top of the lineup, an Easton Tschetter single made it 11-8, an Izayah Ulmer single made it 11-9 and a Kerrigan single scored two to tie the game at 11. Waltner followed with his second infield single of the inning — beating out the throw to first with a head-first slide — to load the bases once again and put the winning run just 90 feet away, but Tabor got the third out of the inning to extend the game.

Neither team scored in what was a quick eighth inning, and Tabor regained the lead at 12-11 in the top of the ninth, forcing the 79ers to stage a rally again — and that’s they did thanks to a little help from their counterparts.

Jarret Andretta drew a leadoff walk and, after a Tschetter flyout, Ulmer reached on an error to put runners on the corners. That’s when Kerrigan made Tabor pay, sending a laser to the leftfield corner that easily scored Andretta from third and was just enough to get the speedy Ulmer home from first — just ahead of the tag. It sent Post 152 into a frenzy.

“I thought we were done for,” said Waltner, who will begin his junior year at Freeman Public this fall. “When they scored all those runs (in the top of the seventh), I figured it would take a miracle for us to pull it off.”

Miracle accomplished.

“It just shows what kind of determination we have,” Waltner continued. “And it shows how good we actually are.”

“It was just awesome,” said Auch, who will also be a junior at Freeman Public this coming school year. “Being down by five runs, I don’t even know that I was fully confident that we could come back. And then to see it happen …”

Auch and Waltner — who follow Kerrigan in the lineup as five and four hitters — and Andretta — who had already scored on Kerrigan’s double — were behind home plate in the bottom of the ninth inning as Ulmer raced around third headed for home. All three of them were emphatically motioning for Ulmer to “get down,” because it was going to be close.

“Oh, my,” said Auch. “I was just like, ‘faster, faster, faster,’ because we saw the ball coming in. And he got just under there at the end. Just insanity.”

“Izayah is the fastest guy on the team, so if anybody could score from first it was him,” said Waltner. Still, he thought to himself, “he’s got to run faster.”

Waltner said he had a clear view of Ulmer’s slide, “and I knew he was safe before the umpire said anything.

“I’m at a loss for words,” he continued. “We’ve never celebrated like that because we’ve never had to come back like that. It felt like nothing ever before.”

In the moments following the celebration, as players and parents milled about in disbelief, Kerrigan said he didn’t feel any pressure when he stepped in the box with one out because he knew Waltner and Auch were behind him.

“I have good hitters both in front of me and behind me, so I wasn’t trying to do too much — just drive one in,” said Kerrigan, who will be a sophomore at Freeman Public. “Two works, too, I guess.”

And he said he was glad he could bounce back from a tough pitching outing in relief of Auch; Kerrigan came on in the fourth inning and gave up eight hits and eight runs — four of them earned — in four innings pitched.

“I felt bad,” he said. “I was glad for the opportunity to make it right.”

For Ulmer, who will be a senior at Menno, said scoring the winning run in such a big game was the cherry on top of what has been a sweet inaugural season for the Post 152 Junior Legion.

“For a first-year team, we’ve shown a lot of really great team play,” he said, which is the only way the 79ers were able to come back against Tabor. “Being down five runs in the seventh inning wasn’t ideal, but we battled. We showed we’re the better team.”

As for his thought process as he rounded the bases, it was simple: “Go faster.”

SMFC ended up with 15 hits to Tabor’s 14, with Tschetter, Kerrigan and Waltner each collecting three. Kerrigan drove in a game-high six RBI, Ulmer had four and Tschetter, Auch and Pankratz each had one.

In addition to Kerrigan’s game-winning drive, Tschetter and Pankratz both doubled.

Tschetter earned the win for Post 152, pitching the final two innings in relief of Kerrigan and giving up one run on one hit, striking out two without a walk.

After the game, as the team took a knee behind their dugout, coach Mike Kerrigan stated the obvious — “That was a lot of fun, wasn’t it?” — before praising the players.

“The best part is that, when we were down five runs, you all came up to the plate trusting yourself and your teammates,” he said. “Just a great job.”

“Way to show resilience, boys,” said coach Corey Gall, a statement that bore repeating, so he said it again. “Way to show resilience.”

“We did everything possible to lose this game,” said Tschetter. “We’ve got to learn from this; the top of the seventh? It looked like you guys threw in the towel. You guys looked like you’ve never seen a baseball before. I didn’t think we would come back to score five runs — I’ll be honest.

“But you showed mental toughness,” he continued. “You trusted yourself, you trusted the guy after you, we loaded the bases and good things happened.”

Winner/Colome goes down

In their first game on the second day of Region 4B play, the 79ers spotted Winner/Colome two unearned runs in the first inning thanks to a couple rare defensive miscues but held serve after that, scoring nine in the second, two in the third and another in the fourth to put the game away 14-2 after five innings.

SMFC took advantage of five Winner/Colome errors while collecting 10 hits, including a 3-for-3 showing from Ulmer and a 2-for-2 effort from Kerrigan. Both players had two RBI.

Waltner, Keppen, Gall, Pankratz and Andretta each batted in a run, and Auch had the team’s only extra-base hit of the game — a double.

Tschetter earned the win, giving up two hits and two runs while striking out five and walking one in 2 2/3 innings pitched. Andretta threw the final 2 1/3 innings, allowing just one hit while striking out three against one walk.

79ers down Wagner

Waltner threw a 98-pitch gem, the defense behind him played errorless ball, and the offense plated nine runs in the top of the seventh inning as the Post 152 Junior Legion scored a 16-1 win over Wagner in its first game of Region 4B play Monday afternoon, July 28 in Tabor.

Waltner was in control in his complete game, five-hit effort; of his 98 pitches, 70 went for strikes, and he struck out nine batters against just one walk — the first batter of the game who would account for Wagner’s only run.

The 79ers took a 5-1 lead in the second inning thanks in part to a two-out triple by Gall that got the rally started. The offense went quiet after that until the sixth inning, when Tschetter connected for a two-RBI double, and Post 152 broke things open with those nine runs in the final frame.

Gall, Tschetter and Kerrigan each had two hits, with Tschetter leading the way with three RBI.

In addition to his outstanding pitching performance, Waltner had a double and two RBI; Rylen Tommeraus and Andretta each knocked in a pair of runs; and Gall, Kerrigan, Ulmer, Auch and Hunter Nankivel each had an RBI.

Wagner committed three errors and its pitchers walked 10 players.