Last Tuesday night in a battle of undefeated league leaders, the Post 175 American Legion baseball team watched a 3-3 eighth inning tie at Post 125 turn into a 12-3 loss. After an evenly played game, the home team put up nine runs in one inning to create a demoralizing, lopsided loss for Mechanicsville.

On Wednesday night at Atlee High School, Post 175 faced a repeat in even more uncomforting fashion. With a 10-4 lead over Ashland Post 206 heading into the top of the ninth, Mechanicsville watched the wheels fall off again as the visiting team put up seven runs to take an 11-10 lead.

“I was just hoping it wasn’t a repeat,” said Post 175 pitcher/outfielder Brandon Angus. “I was hoping it didn’t happen again.”

After a stellar game including a three run homer that broke the game open in the bottom of the fifth, Mechanicsville catcher Travis Tyree also had a sense of déjà vu. “It’s a terrible feeling,” he said. “You start to communicate with the guys, see what’s going on. Find out what they’re thinking and everything. I was a little terrified, a little bit.”

But on this night Mechanicsville had an answer. Facing Ashland reliever Andrew Strong, Post 175’s Jeffery Decker was walked on four pitches. Brandon Johnson then reached on a bunt and a walk of Cody Lavin loaded the bases with no outs.
Michael Thomas tried to drive in the tying run on a sacrifice to left but the ball did not go deep enough, leaving bases loaded with one out.

That brought Angus to the plate.

On Sunday afternoon, Angus drove in his first career grand slam to give Post 175 a walk-off win over 284-P.

“I knew in my heart and my mind that I could pull what I did two night ago off, but I was just trying to put it into play,” Angus said. “A base hit would have scored one and tied game, (we) could have gone back out there and played extra innings.”

But Angus connected on a Strong pitch and it raced towards the fence. The ball came feet short of clearing the centerfield wall, but it was all Mechanicville needed to get Decker and Johnson home to claim a 12-11 win.

Angus was clear this win was not the work of one person. “We do it as a team effort,” he said. “You can’t just put it all on me. It’s hitting everywhere. We got bases loaded again, that’s what we needed. That’s what the team does.”
Both teams came into the contest short-handed due to Beach Week, with Post 206 having one extra player and Mechanicsville none.

“It reminded me of a couple of years ago when we played Little League,” Angus said. “Not too many players, not many to go around, you’ve got to play every position.”

Therefore both teams had to make do with the players on the field.

Angus started off the game on the mound, pitching for the first time in nearly a year. “All’s I can say it’s been a long time,” he said. “It’s been a real long time; Just kind of dusting off the rust on the pitching a little bit.”

Catching for players who haven’t pitched in a while kept Tyree on his toes. “It’s a little scary, but once you go out there and talk to them and find out they’re a little nervous too, you calm them down, they usually hit their spots pretty well,” he said.

Despite a year layoff, Angus was solid through four innings of work before tiring in the fifth to walk the first two batters and hit a third before closing the half with a strikeout with the game in a 2-2 tie.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Post 175 batters took advantage of a tiring Tyler Ross on the mound for Ashland. Johnson led off with a single to right followed by a double from Lavin. A single to right by Thomas drove in Johnson and Lavin scored on a wild pitch for a 4-2 Mechanicsville lead.

A bloop shot over short from Connerley drove in Thomas and brought Tyree to the plate to clear the bases with a homer over left center for an 8-2 lead.

“My past two at bats I’d gotten under it a lot and I finally got on top of one and got it out of here,” Tyree said.

Coach Eddie Gates had Tyree adjust his swing after his first two at-bats. “He had a little upper cut on his first couple of swings,” Gates said, telling Tyree to cut the ball in half.

With Holler pitching in relief for Mechanicsville, Post 206 cut into the lead in the bottom of the seventh with a two RBI double from Sean Pico to pull Ashland within 8-4.

But Holler helped his own cause in the bottom of the inning with a double to left that drove in Daniel Burroughs for a 9-4 lead.

In the bottom of the eighth, Angus scored off a single from Tyree to push the margin to 10-4 and Post 175 seemed to have the game won.

But the top of the ninth brought the Ashland rally as repeated defensive mistakes by Mechanicsville allowed 13 batters to step to the plate.

Tyler Daiq led off with a single to third and with one out Ross was walked. A single from Pico loaded the bases and Cody Handshaw cleared them off with a grand slam to left center, trimming the Post 175 lead to 10-8.

“We were able to battle back in the later half of the game,” said Ashland coach Mike Berry. “I’m really proud of the guys. They found and didn’t give up and it paid off for them.”

And the Ashland assault continued. Cody Crawley singled to short and with two outs Adam Donohoe singled to right. A single to left from Strong drove in Crawley and a single up the middle from Daiq allowed Donohoe to tie the game 10-10.

Zac Zelenick then loaded the bases once again on a single to short.
A shot to second by Ross was bobbled and Strong gave Ashland an 11-10 lead that appeared to be a game winner under Post 175 came up with their own rally in the bottom of the ninth.

On Thursday night, Post 175 defeated Post 244, 14-4 to move to 5-1 on the season.

P206A 010 010 207 — 11 11 1
P175M 011 060 112 — 12 13 4
Ross, Strong (5) and Handshaw; Angus, Holler (6) and Tyree. W — Holler. L — Strong.
Highlights: Sean Pico (P206) 2 for 6, 2B, 2 RBIs; Cody Handshaw (P206) 2 for 5, HR, 3 RBIs; Cody Crawley (P206) 3 for 5; Brandon Angus (175) 2 for 4, 2B, 3 RBIs; Will Connerley (P175) 2 for 3, 2B, 2 RBIs; Travis Tyree (P175) 3 for 5, HR, 3 RBIs
Records: Post 206 Ashland n/r; Post 175 Mechanicsville 4-1

P175M 003 330 5 — 14 11 0
P244 001 003 0 — 4 8 3
Boze, Thomas (5) and Tyree; Cliborne, Brooks (4), Kominars (7) and Props. W — Boze. L — Cliborne.
Highlights: Andrew Props (P244) 3 for 4, 2 2Bs, 2 RBIs; Damian Jones (P244) 2 for 4; Will Connerley P175 3 for 3, HR, 2 RBIs; Michael Thomas (P175) 3 for 3, HR, 2B, 3 RBIs; Daniel Burroughs
(P175) HR; Jordon Boze (P175) 2B, 2 RBIs
Records: Post 175 Mechanicsville 5-1; Post 244 1-4