Post 120 falters in opening game

Dustin White

MATTOON — Effingham Post 120 has some serious work to do if it expects to still be playing Sunday in the Mattoon Senior American Legion Firecracker Classic.

A collectively listless Effingham club paid for that uninspired approach in Wednesday's opener at Lake Land College's Laker Field, a 10-1 whipping at the hands of Kansas Post 539.

Falling to 0-1 in Pool C competition, Effingham (21-8) can't afford another loss; the three pool winners and one wild card out of the remaining 12 teams advance to Sunday's semifinals.

Post 120 stranded eight baserunners and surrendered four unearned runs to Kansas, which is actually composed mainly of Charleston athletes.

"Apparently I didn't have this team prepared to play," said Post 120 Manager Kenny Miller, whose team split with Kansas earlier in the season with several junior legion fill-ins taking the place of Effingham High School athletes that were still participating in their school season.

"I think that was pretty obvious. I'll take my share of the blame right along with everybody else. I'm not pushing the right buttons and I take responsibility for that. It's my job and I didn't do it. We had a long talk after the game, but we haven't come up with any answers."

Alex Westendorf was saddled with the pitching defeat, although he pitched well enough to have a shutout going for three innings.

Instead, Kansas led 3-0 after two, getting one across in the first on a leadoff dinker to center from Derek Hennig, a sacrifice bunt and an equally soft single to center off the bat of cleanup man Lando Bass.

Westendorf fanned the first two hitters in the second — although the second took 10 pitches — only to have a long fly ball to right dropped for a three-base error.

After Westendorf walked the No. 9 hitter, Hennig made it hurt with an RBI single. The second unearned tally of the frame came across on a double steal with runners on first and third.

It took only seven pitches for Westendorf to get out of a 1-2-3 third, but with 60 pitches he was already running out of gas as he surrendered back-to-back doubles from Taylor Nead and James Addison. Another run scored when Hennig ripped an infield single back to the mound and off the Effingham hurler to make it 5-0.

Tyler Ohnesorge took over the pitching duties in the fifth without allowing a score, and Post 120 showed some life when Jordan Amlong laced a one-out double and scored on a Chase Green two-bagger.

Amlong and Green were both 2-for-3 on the day; both of Green's hits were doubles. That run in the fifth was all Post 120 could muster against Cam Phipps, however, as the Kansas righthander scattered eight hits, seven strikeouts and three walks over seven innings and 122 pitches.

Prior to the fifth, Effingham came up empty on a couple good scoring opportunities.

In the third, Ben Sherrick worked a leadoff walk and Ohnesorge, the courtesy runner, moved to third on Chase Green's first double of the day. Derek Meinhart followed with an opposite-field flyout to deep left, and Ohnesorge never touched the plate as Bass had the plate blocked perfectly and tagged him with the relay throw.

Chad Green managed an 0-2 single with one out in the fourth and took third on Cody McCollum's double, but Ben Mehl went down swinging and Marty Jansen flew out to center to halt the threat.

Kansas led 6-1 heading into its final raps in the seventh and ended up batting around for four runs. The first two were legitimate on back-to-back two-out RBI singles from Phipps and Hennig, while the final two scored via errors on the infield.

Having surrendered a ton of runs in the opening loss, Effingham needs to not only win its final three pool play games, but win them by holding the opponents' run totals down as the runs-allowed tiebreaker usually comes into play when deciding either pool winners or wild card teams.

Today's 3:30 p.m. opponent at Grimes Field in Peterson Park is the Central Illinois Chiefs, a Windsor-based junior legion team and last-second addition when Olney backed out of the tourney at the last minute.

Other Pool C action

Stewardson-Strasburg won its pool play opener 11-3 over the C.I. Chiefs, getting a three-run homer from Jaden Widdersheim.

Newburgh, Ind., was off today and doesn't open play until Friday; it will play doubleheaders both Friday and Saturday.

Today, Kansas and Stew-Stras play at 1:15 p.m. at Grimes Field.

Other pool play action

In Pool B Teutopolis Post 924 went 1-1 in its opening day of action, beating Paris 6-1 and taking a beating at the hands of Toledo by a 14-6 final.

Tony Zerrusen threw a six-hitter against Paris, while Jared Massengill had four hits for Toledo and also pitched the entirety of the five-inning run-rule decision.

T-town plays Macon County today at 11 a.m. That game is at Grimes Field. Toledo, which also lost Wednesday to Macon County by a 3-2 score, takes on Paris at 8 p.m. for its only action.

Mattoon and Moultrie-Douglas are both 1-0 in Pool A play.

Dustin White can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 123 or dustin.white@effinghamdailynews.com.

At Laker Field

Lake Land College, Mattoon

Firecracker Classic Pool Play

KANSAS

-----------ab---r---h---bi

Hennig ss----4---1---3---2

Lord rf------4---0---1---1

Wheeler cf---5---0---1---0

Bass c-------4---1---2---1

Clark lf------3---0---0---0

Nead 1b-----4---1---1---0

Addison 3b---3---3---2---1

Meyer 2b----3---2---1---1

Phipps p-----3---2---1---1

TOTALS-----33--10--12---7

EFFINGHAM

-------------ab---r---h---bi

Cs Green ss-----3---0---2---1

Meinhart 2b---4---0---1---0

J. Jansen cf----4---0---0---0

Cd Green dh---4---0---1---0

Westendorf p--0---0---0---0

Ohnesorge p---0---0---0---0

McCollum 3b---3---0---1---0

Mehl 1b-------3---0---1---0

Mahaffey rf----1---0---0---0

M. Jansen rf----1---0---0---0

Sherrick c------2---0---0---0

Ohnesorge cr---0---0---0---0

Amlong lf-------3---1---2---0

TOTALS--------28---1---8---1

Kansas------120---201---4---—---10

Effingham---000---010---0---—----1

E — Lord, Cs Green, Mahaffey, Meinhart. LOB — Kansas 8, Effingham 8. DP — Kansas 1. 2B — Nead, Addison, Cs Green 2, McCollum, Mehl, Amlong. SB — Hennig 2, Phipps 2. SAC — Lord, Clark, Meyer.

PITCHING SUMMARY

---------------IP---H---R--ER--BB--SO

Kansas

Phipps (W)-------7---8---1---1---3---7

Effingham

Westendorf (L)---4---6---5---3---1---3

Ohnesorge-------3---6---5---3---2---2

WP — Westendorf, Ohnesorge. T — 1:54.

Text Only