Advance uses eight innings to knock off Ellington

ELLINGTON, Mo. -- A bases-loaded, two-out walk in the bottom of the eighth inning to Andrew Jenkins scored the winning run to lift Advance to a 3-2 Class 1A sectional victory over Ellington Wednesday.

The win avenged a 4-3 loss to the Whippets in last year's sectional and put Advance (7-6) in Friday's quarterfinal round, where it will host Oran.

Jason Bahr led off the eighth inning with a triple off Levi Cowin (6-2) and Ellington (14-5) elected to walk Jacob Daniel and Eric O'Hare. The strategy appeared to be working when Greg Bugg and Justin Gibson both struck out. But Jenkins, who was 2-for-3 with a double, worked the count to 3-and-1 before walking.

Ellington, the visitor, scored single runs in the first two innings, but was held scoreless the remainder of the game by starter Aaron Cantrell and O'Hare (4-1), who provided hitless relief the final two innings. The pair combined for 12 strikeouts and allowed just five hits.

Trailing 2-0, Advance scored on a two-out double by Cantrell in the second. Jenkins, who had singled, came home on the hit.

Advance tied the score in the bottom of the seventh when Jenkins doubled with one out to score Jeremy Nall, running for Greg Bugg who led off the inning with a single.

"When we tied it up in seventh I knew we were going to win the game," Advance coach Jim Below said.