No one could ever accuse Post 175 catcher Will Connerley of not getting the most for his money. When Connerley stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth against Midlothian Post 186 he faced a scenario that every baseball player dreams about. It was the second game of the American Legion District 11 playoffs and Connerley’s Mechanicsville team had just come back from a 4-3 deficit to tie the game. The bases were loaded, there were two out and Connerley faced a 3-2 count.

  So he was just looking for a pitch of value. “There were two outs and I needed to put it in play somewhere, hopefully past the infield,” Connerley said. “After the two strikes I just spread out, choked up and tried to protect the plate and fouled it off until I got my pitch.

  “In that situation I wasn’t necessarily trying to hit a home run, I was just looking for a pitch I can hit,” Connerley said. “When you see a big fat fast ball out there after a couple of curve balls it’s like a money pitch.”

  And with that pitch, Connerley cashed in big time. With a swing of the bat, the ball flew high and deep over the centerfield fence for a grand slam and an 8-4 Mechanicsville win.

  Connerley’s slam served as a culmination to an impressive ninth inning rally where opportunity won, looked as it would quickly turn into opportunity lost.

  Trailing by one, Nick Frame led off with a double to right. Then Laine Denton knotted the game at four when his double to the centerfield wall drove in Frame.
  After an intentional walk of Jordan Walton, Chase Worthington rocketed a single off the glove of 186 third baseman Mike McCollum to load the bags with no outs.

  Only needing a hit for the win, Aaron Adkins single to short allowed 186 to get a force on pinch runner Bryan Johansen at home. Next up, Sam Hartness tried to dump a shot in right but the ball hung for the second out of the inning bringing Connerley (3-for-5, 5 RBI, 2 HR) to the plate for his game-ending heroics.

  “That was a situation where we just needed to get a ball hit hard somewhere, at least over the outfielder’s head and they don’t catch it,” said Post 175 coach Eddie Gates. “We didn’t get it until Will came up and he got all of it.

  “What a game. I won’t have any hair,” Gates added. “We missed a few signals when it hurt but we kept battling. We made them play the odds. We got to Will and he knocked the poot out of the ball. Great job by the hitter.”

  Throughout a majority of the game, a pitcher’s duel ensued between Post 175’s Aaron Adkins and 186’s Cody Powell. Both faced opening jitters then settled into strong performances. Adkins pitched eight solid innings, notching three strikeouts versus four walks. “I felt pretty good, the first inning wasn’t as smooth as I wanted to be,” he said.

  Though Adkins sometimes got behind, he always bounced back after a trip to the mound by Gates. “I was going out there two different times to take him out of the game,” Gates said. “I said, ‘Do you got it?’ and he said, ‘I got it.’ He said ‘I’ll get you the out.’ Two different times I was pulling him and he adjusted.”

  “He knows I don’t like when he comes out there, especially to take the ball,” Adkins said. “He gave me the chance to stay out there, I got it done and got out of the inning.”

  For Midlo, Powell put in a complete game, picking up two strikeouts but walking seven, including hitting Worthington and Bryson Kemler twice. But each pitcher had their share of batters hit, which could be attributed to the strike zone being called so close to the inside. “It was weird, his zone was in tonight where usually it’s out,” Worthington said but pointed out that 175’s style of play also leads to getting hit. “Our whole team pretty much gets on the plate, we’ve been hit a couple of times each game but tonight was pretty much the most we’ve been hit in a game.”

  Midlothian was hot from the plate to start the game, putting their first three batters on to load the bases. Adkins bounced back by getting Kevin Sias to ground into a double play but the shot also allowed Cory Tuzzo to score and put 186 up 1-0.

  But Mechanicsville came back to tie in the bottom of the inning. Frame (3-for-5, 2 doubles, 3 runs) turned a shot to short into a double by catching the 186 defense sleeping. He then reached third on a sacrifice by Denton (2-for-4, 2 doubles, 2 RBI) and scored on a wild pitch to knot the game at one.

  175 moved ahead in the bottom of the second when Connerley led off with his first homer of the night over center. “He threw the same exact pitch twice so I knew what to look for,” he said. “He hung it and I just squared it up.”

  The score remained the same until the top of the sixth when Midlothian took advantage of a combination of well placed shots, luck and 175 miscues.

  With Sias sitting on first with one out, what could have been a double play to end the inning turned into a Midlothian lead.

  On a hit-and-run play, Sias took off from first and Worthington moved from short to cover second. When he did, Conner Bradley sent a shot to where Worthington was previously standing. Worthington spun back to knock down the ball but Sias moved on to third and Bradley reached safely.

  “That was my fault,” Worthington said. “I vacated and you’re not supposed to vacate. It tipped off the end of my glove and things went rolling their way.”
  Next up, Josh Reavis dropped a shot in short left field to plate Sias and tie the game at two.

  A bunt by James Wilkerson moved the runners into scoring position and both came home for a 4-2 Midlo lead when Tyler Muench dropped a shot in short right where Beau Flinchum and Walton both went after the ball.

  Mechanicsville moved within one, 3-4, in the bottom of the seventh when Denton’s double drove in Frame.

  It appeared 175 would tie or take the lead in the bottom of the eighth, but a questionable call by the officials hampered their efforts.

  With one out, Connerley sent a hopper over short and advanced to third when Kemler singled to left.

  Having runners at the corners, Gates signaled for a double steal but things went awry. Kemler left too early and Connerley could not draw the throw to third. When Kemler returned to first, he appeared to be standing fully on the bag when Midlo first baseman Wilkerson made the tag. When the field umpire called Kemler out, Gates stormed the field.

  “He was safe at first in my opinion,” Gates said. “I was on the field a little early so they could have called him out for me being on the field, but that wasn’t the situation. They just called him out.”

  Worthington said the most upsetting part of the play was it could have taken the outcome out of the player’s hands. “It’s tough because you don’t want to put it in the umpire’s hands,” Worthington said. “The team kind of gets fired up I think after that and you saw towards the end of the game, we just don’t want the umpires to have a say in the game, we’ll take it ourselves.”

  And take it they did. In the top of the ninth, Gates brought reliever Justin Thorn to the mound and he made quick work of the Midlo batters to set up the bottom of the ninth drama.

  For 175 players who have not seen a lot of success in the past, this season has been one to remember. “It’s a lot of fun,” Adkins said. “I’ve been on this team for four years now and we’ve had a couple of awful seasons but now it’s coming together…it makes it a whole lot more fun with all of these guys.”

  Likewise, for many of the current and former Lee-Davis players, the American Legion run is giving them their first real taste of post-season success. “I know the Hanover kids know how it is being in the post season but at Lee-Davis we play one game and we’re done in the regionals,” Connerley said. “It’s been a while since I’ve been to the playoffs of any sort or had a chance to make a run so, it’s always fun to be competitive.”
 
Post 186 ..........100 003 000— 4 11 0
Post 175 ..........110 000 105— 8 11 2

Powell and Sais; Adkins, Thorn (9) and Connerley. W: Thorn L: Powell
Highlights: Cory Tuzzo (186) 3 for 4, double, run; Cody Powell (186) 2 for 5; Nick Frame (175) 3 for 4, 2 doubles, 3 runs; Lane Denton (175) 2 for 4, 2 doubles, 2 RBI; Will Connerley (175) 3 for 5, HR, game-winning grand slam, 5 RBI, run; Bryson Kemler (175) 1 for 1
Records: Midlothian Post 186 11-13; Mechanicsville Post 175 17-7