American Legion baseball has been known to suffer through weird, wacky plays and odd outcomes, but on Thursday evening Post 175 saw one for the record books.

Playing at Varina Post 233, the Mechanicsville squad thought they had walked off the field with an 8-5 win after shutting down the Varina offense in the bottom of the ninth. The officials made their usual hasty exit. Both teams shook hands and the players began to change out of their uniforms. That was when Post 175 Coach Eddie Gates called his remaining players together in the dugout.

“Boys, I hate to tell you this but they missed an inning,” he told his stunned squad that was not sure whether or not he was joking.

It turned out the joke was on everyone because somewhere along the line either the sixth or seventh inning was bypassed.

As the oldest player on the Post 175 squad, centerfielder Bryson Kemler has seen a lot, but a missed inning was something new. “No. Never. Never seen anything like that,” he said. “I’ve been playing baseball for like 12 years and never seen it. But I guess you’ve got to roll with it.”

Not only had many players changed clothes, but some had also left the park. “A couple of them were almost gone,” Gates said. “They were in their cars. That makes it interesting because if they’d said you have to have the same players in I don’t know what I would have done.”

Having pulled out the win once, both the coach and players were concerned about what would happen when the teams returned to the field.

“I know a lot of our guys were ready to get out of here,” Kemler said. “It seemed to be a really quick paced game. We were pretty excited about getting the win. Having to come back and play one more inning you never know which way the momentum is going to be.”

Gates agreed. “When you’ve got three more outs anything can happen,” he said. “I’ve seen it. It’s happened with two outs. You see a team score four, five, six runs. They had their good hitters up. I was real concerned. I was wondering if our focus could come back.”

Over 20 minutes passed while the umpires were relocated and told to return to the field.

It appeared that momentum had shifted to the 233 dugout after pitcher Brian Thurston carded two quick outs. But Mechanicsville’s Brandon Angus, subbing for Zach Broaddus who had been in the parking lot, was hit by a pitch to reach first. Next up, Kemler drilled a shot to the centerfield fence and it was all the speedy Angus needed to round the bags and put Post 175 up 9-5.

“I guess you just need one swing,” Kemler said. “I got a kid from first scoring. Something like that can always help us out. Keeps the momentum on our side.”

Varina threatened in the bottom of the additional inning by quickly putting two runners on base before the 175 defense stepped up.

175 relief pitcher James Walsh struck out Cody Smith then catcher Mitch Keeler made a brilliant play, holding back on a throw to catch the runner leading off first and instead going to third baseman Paul Keyes to catch Varina’s Darren Carpenter.

Walsh then struck out Thurston to end the game for a second time.

Varina took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Smith’s single to center drove in Zach Mathews.

But Mechanicsville answered in to the top of the second. A bases loaded walk of Broaddus forced Jordan Boze home to tie the game then Kemler singled to short to drive in Ryan Bettinger.

175 added two more in the top of the fourth when Kemler’s line drive down the third base line plated Keeler and Billy Steel for a 4-1 lead.

In the top of the sixth Mechanicsville added two more following another odd play.

Bettinger led off with a deep shot down the right line that bounced into the corner. Varina’s Austin McCullough slid to retrieve the ball and made the throw to the infield from his knees. But despite the fact that the ball was in play, the field umpire held Bettinger at second and blew the play dead because McCullough’s foot was pinned under the fence.

With two outs and Keeler joining Bettinger on base, Broaddus’s shot to short was dropped and the throw went high to first allowing both runners to score for a 6-1 lead.

The Varina bats came alive for four runs in the bottom of the fifth to pull within 6-5.

But 175 answered in the top of the seventh. A sacrifice to right by Chop Pulisic drove in Steel and Broaddus scored on a wild pitch.

Mechanicsville got a surprising performance from Connor Overton on the mound considering he was not scheduled to pitch. “I was going to put him at shortstop but his foot has been hurting,” Gates said. “I said, ‘Can you pitch?’ and he said yes so I put him at pitching.”

Overton recorded four strikeouts and limited Varina to one run through four innings, before surrendering four in the fifth inning when he was at his limit.
The victory was the third straight for the 175 team that started the season 1-7 but now seems to have found itself.

“Last week we were really disappointed with our play,” Kemler said. “A few of the players talked. The coaches talked. Everybody was saying just pick it up. We’ve got to come more prepared. We’ve got to be more excited in the dugout and everybody’s responded. It’s a young team and I think everyone needed that talk and that coming together moment and it’s really helped. These last three days have been really great, really exciting and we hope to carry it into the weekend and the second half of the season and just keep it rolling.”

“It seems we’re getting a little cohesiveness and starting to play,” Gates said. “We’re starting to have fun and that’s the biggest thing.”
 
Post 175………..0 2 0 2 2 0 0 2 1- 9
Post 233………..1 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0- 5