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In what could only be described as a roller coaster day at the ball park, the La Salle Junior League baseball team pulled itself off the mat and staved off elimination with a five-run bottom of the seventh inning for a 10-9 walkoff victory to force a second game.
La Salle then used a big seven-run second inning to build a commanding seven-run lead but Oglesby showed no quit and rallied with five runs to pull within a pair and then put the tying runs on base before La Salle was able to record the coveted 21st out to take home the District 20 title.
In game one, Oglesby jumped out to an early 4-0 lead by taking advantage of a few La Salle miscues and a Mason Videgar RBI single.
La Salle bounced back in the home half of the frame with a pair of runs on hits by A.J. Hermes, Monti Lorenzi and Kian Zeller to tighten the score to 4-2.
Jason Curran delivered a two-out single in the top half of the second and Oglesby’s lead grew to 5-2.
La Salle again fought back in its half of the inning as Lorenzi singled and motored his way around on a couple of wild pitches to make the score 5-3.
After a scoreless top of the inning, La Salle drew one closer on an RBI singe off the bat of Ceyton Urbanski.
Oglesby jumped out to a 9-5 lead on run-scoring hits by Matt English and Videgar in the top of the seventh.
That’s when things changed.
Following a pair of walks, Kyle Rios blasted a two-run single to ignite a rally.
With two outs and the bases loaded and La Salle down a run, Jacob Gross hammered a double to left for an improbable 10-9 walkoff victory.
The nightcap of the two-game series began with Oglesby lead-off man English singling and coming around to score the game’s first run.
La Salle answered with a tally of its own as Gross walked and stole a couple bases before scurrying home on a passed ball to tie the game.
After a quiet Oglesby second, the boys from La Salle got things moving using singles from Ryker Rolando, English and Gross before Lorenzi administered the big blow with a long double to put La Salle ahead by an 8-1 margin.
The teams exchanged runs on a Logan Miller run-scoring single for Oglesby and an RBI single for Rolando and the scoreboard read 9-2 La Salle heading into the late innings.
But the kids from Oglesby were not showing any quit as they put up a pair in the sixth with Videgar, Miller and Jason Griglioni each contributing a base knock, and the game moved to the top of the seventh with Oglesby trailing 9-4.
In the top of the last, Oglesby got a lead-off double from Aidan Mullane followed by singles from Halden Hueneburg, Curran and Griglioni.
It started to feel like Oglesby may turn the tables on La Salle, but the La Salle defense tightened up and the Oglesby rally fell just short as La Salle held on to a 9-7 victory and District 20 title.