Freshmen Hold Off Rhineland

The final play of Thursday night's Ninth District tournament game represented what separated Sullivan and Rhineland Post 147.

Post 18 played a clean game, devoid of back-breaking defensive or baserunning miscues. Rhineland, which had committed two errors in the field and allowed several passed balls. lost their final out on the bases.

With just one out in the seventh, a runner on first and Sullivan trying to close out a 5-2 lead, Hermann's Cason Gray tapped a grounder to Colton Ward at second. Ward charged and threw Gray out at first. The runner advanced to second, but Garrett Juergens, who had recorded the putout at first, noticed him leaning too far off second. Juergens fired to Joshua Wiese, who tagged the runner out.

Sullivan won and advanced to continue on in the winner's bracket Friday against No. 1 seed Washington Post 218.

Post 18 (18-4) had to win a struggle against Rhineland, which had played them tough earlier in the season.

Sullivan sent Juergens to the mound. Juergens pitched 5-2/3 innings, struck out 10, walked five and allowed two earned runs. Rhineland had just three hits off Juergens.

Juergens battled control issues early. He walked Gray to leadoff the first. After striking out Luca Myrick, he walked Chase McKague. A passed ball moved the runners into scoring position and Hermann got on the board when Trent Anderson grounded out. Juergens stranded McKague at third with a strikeout of Cameron Michel.

Sullivan has scored in the first inning of nearly every game this season, but it looked precarious after Brody Fredrick quickly set down Juergens and Wiese. Joshua Earney kept the inning alive with a double to left. He scored on Trevor Abernathy's single to center, tying the game at 1-1.

Post 18 took the lead in the second when Blayten Nolie reached on an error at third and Carter Dace was hit by a pitch. Ward bunted the runners into scoring position and with Juergens batting, a wild pitch scored the go-ahead run.

Sullivan put together another two-out rally in the third when Abernathy drew a walk and Immekus singled to right. Abernathy advanced to third and scored on another passed ball. Sullivan took a 3-1 lead.

Post 147 ran into an out in the fourth. Michel walked and stole second, followed by a walk to Utley. Rhineland tried to pull off a double steal, but Nolie fired down to third. Michel, who had strayed too far from the bag, tried getting back to second, but he was tagged out by Wiese. Juergens ended the inning with a strikeout of Luke Bader.

In the bottom half of the inning, Nolie led off by getting hit with a pitch. Andrew Bell was sent in to run for him. He stole second base. Dace walked, prompting a pitching change from Hermann. Ward grounded out to move runners to second and third. Another passed ball allowed Bell to score and put Sullivan up 4-1. Juergens walked and stole second, then two straight walks were drawn by Earney and Abernathy to make it 5-1.

Juergens struck out the side in the fifth, but ran into trouble in the sixth, forcing Sullivan to turn to Abernathy. Juergens loaded the bases with a walk and Abernathy allowed a run to come in when he walked Bader, the first batter he saw. He got out of the jam with a groundout to third.

Abernathy closed out the victory in the seventh.