Post 27 takes the Legion regional title
PLYMOUTH – A few days ago Clayton Adamson was wondering where his offense would come from. In the last 72 hours, he found something as the Post 27 Diamond Spyders rose up for 10 more runs, after a 13-run game the night before, and beat Kokomo Post 6 to win the Junior American Legion regional title.
“We found the bats,” he said. “Back-to-back days we scored 10 runs or more. It’s good to get the offense going to state.”
The Spyders got an early gift from Post 6 as they were able to plate two, two out runs in the first as Kokomo made three errors and a Tre Jordan single with a Jack Christiansen double put Post 27 on the board and they never looked back.
It went a long way to giving Plymouth a lift as Kokomo starter Andrew Barker had handled the Spyders in their last matchup.
“He’s one of the hardest throwers we’ve seen and he gave us fits the last time,” said Adamson. “It was good to get out early and capitalize on him.”
Barker got himself in some trouble in the second walking a pair of hitters and being punished by a double by Caleb Bowling.
Plymouth plated three in the second and scored in every inning. Three in the second was followed by two more in the third and one in the fourth.
Bowling ended it in the fifth with his third hit and third RBI scoring the 10th Plymouth run.
Meanwhile, Jonas McCuen was having his way with the Kokomo order breezing through four innings without giving up a hit, striking out four, walking one, and hitting a batter but thanks to a perfect throw by Post catcher Preston Jessen to nail Noel May trying to steal, faced only one more than the minimum number of hitters.
McCuen finally surrendered a hit in the fifth to Nolan Hahn but struck out two more to end the inning.
“He is a guy that we haven’t thrown as much as we wanted to but he came out in the championship game and proved he could do it,” said Adamson. “It was awesome to see him do that. It was fun for all of us.”
Plymouth moves on to Kokomo with a first-round bye in the next step in the state tournament.
“We don’t know who we’ll play yet,” said Adamson. “Whoever is there we are ready to play. We have all our pitchers lined up and our bats are rolling. I feel good.”
Post 27 is now 9-3 on the year.
*POST 27 10, POST 6 0
at Bill Nixon Field
Post 6 0 0 0 0 0 0-1-3
Post 27 2 3 2 1 2 10-10-1
WP – Jonas McCuen. LP – Barker. 2B – Bowling (P), Christiansen (P).
