The championship of the Post 23 Legion league tournament went down to the wire on Sunday night, the Leavenworth Wranglers staging a three-run rally in the top of the seventh to cut the Easton Outlaw lead to just one run. With the tying run on second base the Outlaws turned to closer Devin Hupp for the final two outs of the seventh, Hupp striking out the first batter faced and forcing a pop out to the first baseman to give his team their third straight Post 23 title.

For Hupp, that last inning was one he won’t forget for a long time.

“That last inning was really intense, you could just feel it in the air,” Hupp said. “We just wanted to get out of here with the win because we knew Monday it would not have been fun to play.”

Hupp’s pitching also drew the praise of opposing coach Justin Bode.

“Devin Hupp, last night he threw the ball as well as I’ve seen anyone throw it in a long time,” Bode said. “He shut us out last night and tonight he comes in and closes it out, slams the door on us.”

Before Hupp’s 2/3 inning, the Wranglers pulled together to come back from their 12-8 deficit. Drake Sedillo led off the seventh, reaching on an error. Landon Cole followed with a base hit and another Outlaws error allowed Drew Thomas to reach, loading the bags. Josh Herrig knocked a sacrifice fly to put Sedillo across in the next at bat, setting the stage for back-to-back RBI singles by Will Brown and Josh Harrison to pull Leavenworth to within one run, 12-11.

The last inning, said the Wranglers coach, was all about taking it one at-bat at a time.

“We had a simple approach at the plate in the last inning,” Bode said. “We just wanted to get to the next batter and get the winning run to the plate. We did that, we got the winning run not only to the plate, but we got him in scoring position. We did what we were supposed to do, we just did it a little too late.

“All the credit goes to the Outlaws. They played their butts off.” 
The one-run victory for Easton, said coach Jerry Barnes, was a matter of all the Outlaws pulling together.

“Everyone contributed,” Barnes said. “John Ernzen had a couple big hits. Seth (Johnson) gave us two or three innings of solid pitching. It wasn’t phenomenal but it was solid. Jason (Crook) came in and did a great job pitching, we just didn’t play behind him real well and then Devin closed it. That’s kind of the way we wrote it to do it. We wanted to do it tonight so we didn’t have to come back Monday. Give those guys a second chance and it might have been different.”

Coming out on top again, said Barnes, is a huge accomplishment for his boys.  

“These guys have won four out of five championships since they’ve been coming in here, so it’s been pretty sweet.”

Hupp agreed, saying it was even more important to him to take the title since this was his last season.

“This means a lot actually,” Hupp said. “We’ve been playing together for so long and this is where it comes to an end. It feels good to go out on top in our last time, and for the third year in a row.”

For Derek Warden, who also closed out his Legion baseball career in the win, playing well in the finale was the icing on the cake.

“I think we played pretty good. Our older guys really stepped up in pitching,” Warden said. “I was pretty nervous though.”

The championship game started out with the Wranglers getting on the board early, posting a pair of runs in the top of the first. Cole drew a base on balls in the lead-off spot and then Thomas started off a huge night at the plate with a two-run homer. After that, Outlaw started Seth Johnson settled down, forcing two ground outs before Harrison knocked a single. Johnson struck out the next Wrangler batter to escape the inning.

In the bottom of the first the Outlaws used patience at the plate to score four runs. Jeremy Crook singled to start Easton before Jason Crook, Warden, Hupp and Will Ryan walked consecutively to plate Jeremy. Jason scored on a passed ball in the next at bat before Gary Flack ripped a base hit to score Warden. Hupp also scored in the inning, coming across on a passed ball.

It was three quick outs in the top of the second, Johnson notching a couple strikeouts and Outlaw catcher Ryan picking off a runner at first base for the third out. The Easton half of the inning saw the Outlaws extend the lead to 8-2, Jeremy Crook once again starting the rally, this time with a triple off the center field fence. Jeremy scored on a passed ball in the next at bat as Jason Crook earned a base on balls. Dylan Pierson replaced Wrangler starter Will Brown after that. Warden kept Easton rolling though, knocking a single, and a base hit off the bat of Hupp scored two in the next at bat. A Seth Johnson single moved Hupp over and John Ernzen earned an RBI with his singlein the next at bat. Pierson struck out two of the three outs in the inning.

The Wranglers staged a comeback in the top of the third, plating five runs to make it an 8-7 ball game. Cole once again walked to start the inning and Thomas matched his first at bat with another home run for two more RBIs. Herrig walked in the next at bat, prompting the Outlaws to replace Johnson on the mound with Jason Crook. Crook walked Brown in the next at bat before an Easton error allowed Harrison to reach and Herrig to score. Another Outlaw error allowed two runs to score and Ryan Lasneske to reach before a fly out helped Easton get out of the inning.

In the bottom of the third the Outlaws pulled away again, Jason Crook walking and scoring on a Hupp single. An error allowed Ryan to reach and he scored in the next at bat on a Seth Johnson RBI single. Ernzen blasted a double in the next at bat, earning an RBI and capping the inning with the Outlaws up 11-7.
Both teams held in the fourth. The only action in the fifth inning came in the top half when Leavenworth’s Thomas put his third straight home run over the fence. The home run was  Thomas’s fourth of the day, his first coming in the play-in game against the Knights earlier in the day. That feat, said Bode, was fun to be a part of.

“I’ve never been a part of a guy hitting four home runs in two games, and three all in one game,” Bode said. “Back-to-back-to-back home runs and then one so hard that it almost took the kid’s glove off. He was just hitting the ball really well.”
The score would remain 11-8 until the bottom of the sixth, when Easton added another run on a Wrangler error that allowed Levi Johnson to reach and a Warden double that scored him.

The game being so close, said Barnes, was a fitting way to round out the league season. 

“It was a hard-fought game, take your hat off to the Wranglers because they came to play. You know they had to have two games today in the heat and they just played hard.

“The Outlaws came in and the boys did a good job. Just like they always do, they battled. We got some key hits, stole some bases and played defense. We got sloppy a little bit, but then we came back. When you’re playing against a good team, sometimes that happens.”

Bode echoed Barnes, saying the game was a prime example of everything that’s great about baseball.

“This is why this is the greatest game ever, you can have a great game like this and still lose and still have a blast,” Bode said. “We played well, made a few mistakes here and there that ended up costing us, but it was a good season.”
A big reason behind the Outlaws win this season and for the past two years, said Bode, is the Easton coaching staff. 

“They’re very quiet, they don’t get a lot of props for how good of coaches they are,” Bode said. “They put their kids in a position to win at all time and they’ve done a heck of a job. I give a lot of credit to them and respect them tremendously.”

Wranglers vs. Knights

The Wranglers pounded out an 8-3 win over the Leavenworth Knights to get into the championship game. The Wranglers came out ready to play in the Knights match up, starting pitcher Cole allowing just three Knights batters to the plate in the top of the first. Cole also started the Wrangler offense, getting hit by Knights’ starter Jon Thomas’ first pitch of the contest. Drew Thomas reached on an error in the next at bat and a Brown single scored both. Jon Thomas struck out batters for all three first-inning outs.

The Knights came right back in the second inning, knotting the game at 2-all when Jon Thomas reached on an error and Louis Novak knocked a base hit. After two strikeouts for Cole, he walked Jeremy Tarwater and Joe Nitchals, scoring Jon Thomas. A dropped third strike on Cole’s third strikeout of the inning allowed Colby Cooper to get on base and plated Novak to cap the rally.

It wasn’t until the bottom of the third that the Wranglers would score again, breaking the 2-2 tie with a Cole single and a two-run homer by Drew Thomas. Herrig walked in the next at bat and Brown followed with a double. Harrison made it back-to-back doubles in the next at bat, earning two RBIs with the hit.

Cole and the Wrangler defense continued to hold down the Knights in the fourth and fifth innings. The Wranglers beefed up their lead with their final two runs of the game in their half of the fourth. Pierson got things going with single and an error on a Lasneske bunt moved Pierson over and put Lasneske on first. Byron Hadfield followed with a sac bunt to put Pierson on third before Sedillo knocked a hit that took a bad hop over the head of Knights’ shortstop Mark Scanlon, scoring two runs.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Knights replaced Jon Thomas with Scanlon to help hold the Wranglers scoreless through the last two innings. The top of the sixth saw Chris Haney take over on the mound for the Wranglers. The sixth is when the Knights put across their final run, Scanlon starting things with a single and scoring on a ground out by Novak. Haney struck out a batter with the bases loaded to escape the inning.
In the season-ending loss, said Knights coach Shawn Scanlon, his boys just couldn’t get the bats going.

“We didn’t hit and we left too many on base,” Scanlon said. “It wasn’t for lack of trying. The bottom line is the Wranglers just hit better.
“I’d have liked to give them a better game.”

For Scanlon, who loses several players to the age limit after this season, the loss was a tough one to swallow.

“It’s emotional because I lose quite a few kids,” Scanlon said. “And there’s not a bad kid in the bunch.”