Eureka Post 177 beat Washington Post 218 5-3 with a rousing comeback at Ronsick Park on Saturday night to win the American Legion AA state baseball championship.
It is Eureka’s first AA state title. It lost in the state final in 2011. Post 177’s A team won state in 2010 and 2011 and the AAA team fell in the 2013 state final.
By the time the game got to the sixth inning, Eureka (31-4) trailed host Washington 3-0 and had lost two defensive starters – third baseman Lenny Tocco and right fielder Adam Sheehy – to injury during the game.
All signs pointed to a Washington win that would have forced a winner-take-all game on Sunday in the double-elimination tournament. Eureka was in position to claim the state title with a comeback win after pitchers Dylan Tate and Carter Luft threw complete-game gems in a 1-0 win against Jefferson City Post 5 and 3-1 victory over Washington in the first two rounds of the state tournament being played again after it was canceled in 2020 because of COVID-19.
Up until the sixth inning, Post 218 righthander Morgan Copeland had kept Eureka off the scoreboard and with a pitch count still below 100 in the sixth, he stayed in as Patrick Dahm, Luft and Dakota Joggerst, the starting pitcher for 177, all singled off him. Dahm was thrown out at home plate on Joggerst’s single, but Tate’s two-out double cut Washington’s lead to 3-2.
In relief for Joggerst, Dahm retired Post 218 in order in the bottom of the sixth setting the stage for unlikely heroics from a seldom-used player.
Josiah Hubbard (single) and Jake Kranawetter (fielder’s choice) reached safely for Post 177 to start the seventh but both were out later on ground outs. Dahm (fielder’s choice) and Luft (walk) got aboard and an infield single by Joggerst loaded the bases. Replacing Tocco in the batting order was Josh West, who plays for Eureka’s A team in the summer and had only come in the previous two games as a pinch runner. West produced a bases-clearing triple for the game’s winning hit.
“I never expected to go in,” West said. “The (Eureka Post 177 head coach Connor Quick) called my name. I didn’t expect a triple but I told myself I can’t be the game-losing out.”
For a complete breakdown of Eureka’s state championship, read the Aug. 5 issue of the Eureka Leader.