By Myra Bean

The Batesville Red Sox of the American Legion league used an extra inning to take a 5-4 win over the Royals Thursday night.

In the nightcap battle of the top two teams, the Yankees pulled out a 6-3 win over the Athletics (A’s).

The Red Sox/Royals game was tied at four at the end of regulation. Royals Tevis Flowers pitched the final three innings in relief and took the loss. He relieved J. C. Harper after two innings who relieved starter Taylor Karr after two innings.

Flowers went into the seventh inning having given up only one hit. As his arm started to tire, he struck out the first batter of the seventh and walked Gage Aldison. Flowers struck out the third batter for two outs.

The Red Sox kept battling and Tyler Beard doubled to advance Aldison to third. Cody Harbour tripled and drove home Aldison for the winning run.

Lane Massey put the first run on the board for the Royals as he walked to get on base. He stole second and got to third on a passed ball. When the Royals catcher dropped the ball after the third strike on Karr, Massey scored on a wild pitch.

The Royals scored two runs in bottom of the first. Clay Harbour got on base on a catcher’s error. He made it to second on a passed ball and to third on a pitcher’s balk. Nathan Simmerman got on base on a pitching error while Harbour scored.

On a Chance Whitten RBI (run batted in) double, Simmerman scored for the 2-1 lead.

In the top of the second the Royals tied the game at two when Andy Linder scored on a Red Sox catcher error. Linder walked, stole second and advanced to third on a balk.

In bottom of the third the Red Sox scored two runs to retake the lead. Tyler Beard walked before Cody Harbour doubled advancing Beard to third. Whitten tripled scoring both.

The Royals scored one run in the top of the fifth. Bryan Byford doubled to get on base, stole third and scored when Ryne Hitchcock grounded out to first base to cut the lead 4-3.

In top of the sixth leadoff batter Massey walked before advancing to second and third on passed balls. Karr then singled driving Massey home for the 4-4 tie.

Jesse Pearson got the win for the Red Sox with two strikeouts, walking four, while allowing two hits and one earned run.

A’s vs. Yankees

In the nightcap, Landon Fullilove went the distance on the mound for the 6-3 Yankees’ win.

Austin Smith took the loss for the A’s facing 16 batters with six strikeouts in 4.1 innings. He allowed four walks and three runs, none earned. Nathan Simmerman relieved Smith in the fourth and went 1.1 innings facing 13 batters. He struck out two, walked three, allowed three hits and three runs, both earned.

The Yankees scored the first run in the top of the first when Fullilove walked, followed by walks by Deon Mix and John Hayden Foster loading the bases. Chase Coker walked sending home Fullilove.

The Yankees added two more runs in the top of the fourth after Chase Coker got on base on a fielder’s choice. J. J. Kilpatrick got on with a fielding error. Cameron Brown also got on base on an error and Coker and Kilpatrick took advantage and scored.

In bottom of the fourth, the A’s got on base for the when Smith singled and came home on a Simmerman RBI single.

The Yankees scored two runs in the top of the fifth. Fullilove was hit by a pitch to get on and Hunter Darby walked. Mix hit a two RBI single to score both. They added their last run in top of the sixth when Coker walked and scored on a passed ball.

The A’s tried to make up the difference in bottom of the sixth but were only able to get two runs across. Dalton McFarland and Ridge Simmerman both walked. Smith hit a double RBI scoring both.

This is the final week of regular action for American Legion. Next Monday’s games have been replaced with the beginning of the league tournament. The tournament will be played Monday and Tuesday. A schedule for the tournament will be printed in Friday’s edition.

In Thursday’s upcoming action, The Royals and Yankees will play at 5:45 p.m. and the A’s and Red Sox will close out at 7:30 p.m.