Jackson Junior Legion topples Eureka in championship game

Editor's note: The spelling of Triston Thele's name has been corrected in this story.

Triston Thele stood at the plate, the winning run 90 feet away, and a state championship on the line.

Pressure? What pressure?

Thele, the No. 9 hitter for the Jackson Post 158 junior American Legion squad, calmly took a couple pitches from Eureka right-hander Sean Markley, then drilled a single down the third-base line that scored Tyler Slinkard from third and gave Post 158 a thrilling 7-6 victory in the championship game of the Missouri Junior American Legion state tournament Saturday at Legion Field in Jackson.

With the win, Post 158 (34-7) advances to the regional tournament beginning this week in Kansas.

Jackson Junior Legion's Triston Thele drives in Tyler Slinkard from third base against Eureka Post 177 to end the championship game in the Junior American Legion state tournament Saturday at Legion Field in Jackson. (Fred Lynch)

"I was thinking it'd be awesome if I could hit it off the ground here, or just hit it where they're going to make an error," said Thele, who finished 2 for 3 with two runs batted in.

Slinkard had opened the inning with a walk off Eureka reliever Josh Cliver. Zach Elfrink followed with a bunt that Cliver mishandled, and both runners advanced on a wild pitch. Skylar Pease was walked intentionally to load the bases and enable a force out at any base.

That brought up Thele. Eureka manager Ron Muse brought in his left fielder as an additional infielder, and Thele was staring at three defensive players between short and second.

But his shot down the line glanced off third baseman Andrew Bujnak's glove and into left field, Slinkard racing home with the winning run and setting off a wild on-field celebration for Post 158.

"I just told the guys it was one pitch at a time," Jackson coach Shelby Kight said about the team huddle before starting the bottom of the seventh. "We get a guy on base and try to get something going. ... I knew Tristan would put a good swing on a ball. Luckily he came up and hit a ball right on the screws and found a hole."

Jackson Junior Legion starter Ben Maudie pitches to a Eureka batter during the first inning of the championship game in the Junior American Legion state tournament Saturday, at Legion Field in Jackson. (Fred Lynch)

Slinkard said it was just a matter of relaxing at a critical time in the game.

"I was trying to do anything I could to get on base," Slinkard said. "[On Thele's hit] I was just praying it wouldn't get caught. Knowing that if the ball got through, to score the winning run in the state championship, it was unbelievable. A great feeling."

It was the fourth game between the two teams over the past week, including two in last week's Zone 4 tournament, and each was a nail-biter. The teams went 2-2 against each other, with Eureka winning both games in the zone tournament and Jackson winning both in the state tournament.

On Saturday, Post 158 started pulling away early, scoring single runs in the first three innings to take a 3-0 lead. Eureka came back with two in the top of the fourth, but Jackson added two more in the bottom of the inning to forge a 5-2 lead. Thele's run-scoring single in the bottom of the fifth made it 6-2, and it looked like Post 158 would cruise to the title.

But Eureka had made a habit of rallying throughout the week. In Saturday's first game, Eureka spotted Washington a 10-0 lead after three innings before beginning to peck away, scoring six runs in the fourth, two in the fifth, and single runs in the sixth and seventh to tie the score. Finally, in the bottom of the ninth, Eureka scored to advance to the title game with a wild 11-10 victory.

Jackson Junior Legion's Triston Thele is congratulated by a teammate after delivering the game-winning hit against Eureka in the championship game of the Junior American Legion state tournament Saturday.

The game against Post 158 was eerily similar. Eureka scored three runs on five hits in the sixth to pull to 6-5, and a single run in the top of the seventh forged a 6-6 tie.

"Sometimes it just doesn't go your way. No matter what you do, it just doesn't happen," Muse said. "But Jackson just played two really strong games against us this week, and they earned it. And that's what you want to see. They earned a state championship, and they're a really good team"

"We did the little things right," Kight said. "We knew it was going to be a battle against Eureka. It has been every time, and we didn't expect anything less."

Simply put, Post 158 made the plays when they needed them. In the sixth, Eureka's first four batters reached base against Jackson starter Ben Maudie. But while Bujnak was able to score from third on a wild pitch for the third run of the inning -- catcher Garret Reynolds' throw to Maudie appeared to beat Bujnak to the plate, but the runner was ruled safe -- Eureka's Zac Husman was ruled out on a similar play when Maudie's next pitch got past Reynolds and went to the screen. This time, Maudie got the tag down and Post 158 escaped further damage.

"Both those were my fault," Reynolds said. "I should've corralled those. They were both bang-bang plays. ... It ended up working out for us."

Then, in the top of the seventh, Reynolds caught a pop foul just before crashing into the fence to end the inning and limit Eureka to just one run, setting up Post 158's bottom-of-the-inning heroics.

"I felt when Garret made the over-the-shoulder catch to end the top of the seventh that momentum shifted in our favor," Kight said. "And again, we were up with a chance to win the game, and we got the job done."

Maudie went the distance on the mound for Post 158, allowing six runs -- four earned -- on 11 hits, walking three and striking out four.

"When they hit him, he came back and got outs at the end," Reynolds said about Maudie. "He limited the damage, which was key."

Maudie credited his teammates with putting early runs on the board.

"You can't win the game with just the pitcher on the mound," he said. "You have to have all nine to win the game, and that's what we did today."

"He was a bulldog out there for us today," Kight said about Maudie. "He always is. He came out there, I thought he had good stuff. They're a good-hitting team, and he limited them when they had scoring opportunities."

Eureka 000 203 1 -- 6 11 2

Jackson 111 210 1 -- 7 9 2

WP: Ben Maudie. LP: Josh Cliver. 2B -- Andrew Colin (E), Connor McCann (E). Skylar Pease (J). Multiple hits -- Eureka: Colin 2-4, Nate Witherspoon 2-4, Andrew Bujnak 2-3, Zac Husman 2-3. Jackson: Cameron Duke 2-3, Triston Thele 2-3. Records: Eureka 33-8, Jackson 34-7.