Hurst plays hero as Jackson edges Cape for fifth straight senior legion baseball district title

Nathan Hurst couldn’t have picked a better time to record his first hit of the District 14 Senior Legion championship.

Jackson Post 158 built a sizable lead and watched it slip away before Hurst came through with a two-out hit to left center in the bottom of the ninth to secure Post 158’s fifth consecutive district title with a 9-8 walk-off win against Cape Girardeau Ford and Sons Post 63.

“It’s good to help continue the dynasty,” Hurst said.

Cape Girardeau Post 63's Isaac Pender hits a solo home run against Jackson Post 158 during the fifth inning of the championship game in the Senior Legion district tournament Friday, July 15, 2016 at Saxony Lutheran High School.Fred Lynch ~ flynch@semissourian.com

Jackson (23-8) held an 8-0 advantage after three innings of Friday’s contest at Saxony Lutheran High School, but failed to score again until Hurst’s hit in the bottom of the ninth.

“Here’s a kid that’s had big hits all summer and a perfect guy in that spot,” Post 158 coach Mark Lewis said. “But still, to come through was huge. He’s been doing it all year and got a big knock for us to win it.”

Post 158 went up 3-0 in the first on a pair of walks, a hit and an error, and tacked on three more in the second while recording just one hit thanks to another error, a walk and a hit batsman.

Starting pitcher Zach Elfrink hit a two-run single up the middle in the third to extend the advantage to 8-0.

Post 63 relief pitcher Isaac Pender stranded seven Jackson runners over the next five scoreless frames, including a runner on third in the fourth, seventh and eighth, and the bases loaded in the fifth.

“We jumped out on them and Cape did an outstanding job of staying focused and not letting us kind of continue,” Lewis said. “… Pender did an outstanding job. He’d thrown an inning or so in the game earlier and he was just a battler. He kept them in it and kept giving them a chance to tie it up.”

It was Pender who started Cape’s comeback, leading off the fifth with a home run to left.

He took the loss on the mound, allowing seven hits after entering with a runner on and no outs in the bottom of the second. He walked five, hit two and struck out three.

“He’s a true competitor,” Post 63 coach Justin Lieser said. “He’s an awesome kid, great work ethic. Just what you want in a baseball player. If you could make the personality and just the will of a baseball player, I think you’d start with a person like Isaac. What he was able to do as far as keeping us in the game was tremendous, and then to give us a little spark with his home run, just to give us some kind of life, was huge.”

Trevor Haas hit a two-run shot in the sixth to cut it to 8-3.

Pender and Clayton Reynolds hit back-to-back one-out singles in the eighth. A fielder’s choice put runners on the corners with two outs when Lieser brought in JT Moore to pinch hit.

Moore sent a 2-2 pitch into shallow center. Center fielder Triston Thele lunged forward to make the catch, but it bounced under his glove, letting two runs score to pull Cape within 8-5.

Jackson Post 158's Drew Brown leads off second base past Cape Girardeau Post 63 shortstop Ross Essner during the first inning of the championship game in the Senior Legion district tournament Friday, July 15, 2016 at Saxony Lutheran High School. Fred Lynch ~ flynch@semissourian.com

“He’s an all-or-nothing guy sometimes, and there was an earlier catch that he made,” Lewis said. “But I’ll go into a game with that kid anytime. He probably was a little too aggressive on that. I don’t doubt what he saw. He thought he could make a play. I’ve seen him make those a ton this summer. That was just a ball that he was probably too aggressive on.”

Cramer McGarr followed with an RBI single, Brock Baugher reached on an infield single and Garrett Siebert knotted it up with a hit to center.

“The big hit out of Garrett Siebert, the big knock that tied it up, that was a 1-2 pitch down on the dirt and he went down and stuck it in there and got the base hit,” Lewis said. “… It was a pretty good pitch.”

Cape got the leadoff runner on in the ninth after a throwing error before Elfrink gave way to reliever Garrett Thele.

Thele picked up the win after getting three groundouts to end the threat before Hurst’s walk-off.

Post 63 concluded its season with a record of 18-14.

“They showed a lot of persistence, especially today playing their fourth game [of the tournament],” Lieser said. “They showed they wanted a fifth one tomorrow. I was proud of them.”

The Zone 4 tournament awaits Jackson next week in Ste. Genevieve.

“I’m very proud of this group,” Lewis said. “I don’t know what the expectation was at the beginning of the year. I was real high on them and they came out and listened and they worked their tails off all summer and were able to put it together at the end and win another one.”

Cape 000 012 050 — 8 15 4

Jackson 332 000 001 — 9 9 2

WP — Garrett Thele. LP — Isaac Pender. 2B — Brock Baugher (CG), JT Moore (CG), Cameron Duke (J). HR — Pender, Trevor Haas. Multiple hits — Cape: Baugher 3-5, Garrett Siebert 2-5, Haas 2-5, Pender 2-4, Clayton Reynolds 2-5; Jackson: Zach Elfrink 4-5, Cameron Duke 2-5.