Royals and Red Sox advance to American Legion title game
Published 10:15 am Friday, June 16, 2017
- Who is under all that dust? That is Brandon Phelps of the A’s in American Legion action Wednesday night in the semi-finals. The A’s were downed by the Red Sox 6-4 and will face the Yankees Monday in the consolation game. The Panolian photo by Glennie Pou
Royals and Red Sox advance to American Legion title game
Who is under all that dust? That is Brandon Phelps of the A’s in American Legion action Wednesday night in the semi-finals. The A’s were downed by the Red Sox 6-4 and will face the Yankees Monday in the consolation game.
The Panolian photo by Glennie Pou
By Brad Greer
A wild finish set up the American Legion championship game as regular season No.1 seed Red Sox and No.2 seed Royals survived opening round tilts Wednesday night.
Royals-11 Yankees-10
The Yankees trailed 11-4 going into the sixth and final inning before taking advantage of five Royas errors and to pull within one run but could not the tying run home from third with two outs as Royals reliever Dre’ Moore struck out the final batter of the game to preserve the win.
The Royals looked to have blown the game open with a ten-run third inning only to have the Yankees chip away at the lead with three runs in the fourth to go along with the sixth inning outburst. Brandon Phelps recorded the lone hit in the sixth with a single while Lee Adcock drove in a run with a groundout.
Wes Morgan and Moore each singled twice and drove in two runs to pace the Royals offensively. Keshaun Lantern also provided two singles and scored a run. John Blockmon and Caleb Lantern added RBI singles. Blaine Cosby, Morgan and Moore tossed two innings each on the mound.
Forrest Pierce paced the Yankees with two doubles and one run driven in. Phelps contributed with a triple and single while John Culp and Nathan Walls accounted for singles.
Red Sox-6 A’s-4
The Sox three runs in the first inning proved to be the difference maker as they advanced to the title game Wednesday.
Gunner Ward’s two-run single followed by an Bubba Winters RBI groundout gave the Red Sox a 3-1 cushion after one inning of play.
The A’s tied the game at 3-3 in the top of the second as Josh Johnson led off the inning and later scored on a wild pitch. Matthew Turner later drew a walk and came home on D.J.Melton’s ground ball out.
The Red Sox regained the lead in the bottom half of the frame with two unearned runs off one hit. The Sox added their final run in the third as Luke Weldon was hit by a pitch then scored on a single by Jackson Spinks.
Tate Anderson added a double and Weldon singled in the winning cause. Dawson Griffin, Ward, Denver Brown and Anderson towed the rubber for the Sox.
Hunter Ellis doubled while Josh Johnson and Brandon Phelps each singled for the A’s.
The season will conclude Wednesday with the A’s and Yankees playing for third place at 5:30 followed by the Red Sox and Royals in the title game.
