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Post 64 wins wild game over Athens, 13-12

Marietta Post 64’s Brandon Neville grounds to second base during an American Legion baseball game against Athens Post 21 Tuesday at Don Schaly Stadium in Marietta. Post 64 won, 13-12. Photo by Jordan Holland.

MARIETTA — Marietta Post 64 head coach Brian Brewer summed up Tuesday’s game against Athens Post 21 nicely.

“Survival of the fittest?” Brewer joked after his team’s wild 13-12 victory at Don Schaly Stadium. Post 64, which improved to 7-3, trailed 6-1 early, but came back to tie the game at 6-all in the fifth inning. Marietta took its first lead in the bottom of the eighth when a four-spot made it 11-8, but Athens responded with four runs in the top of the ninth to go up one. Once again, Marietta answered with a pair in the bottom of the ninth to come away with a win. Post 64 had defeated Athens, 25-2, earlier in the season, but Tuesday was a different story.

“We’re just not sharp,” said Brewer, whose club issued 14 walks and allowed 15 hits. “We’re not throwing enough strikes on the mound. We’re not playing clean offensively. But in large part, it’s due to the fact that we’ve only played nine games. We’ve really gotten no chance to establish any momentum, consistency. So hopefully the next seven to 10 days will help us do that. We’re certainly a better club than what we’re playing right now. We’re fortunate to come away with a ‘W’ tonight.”

Marietta visits Cambridge today for a doubleheader before heading to Maryland for a round-robin tournament this weekend. Brewer is hoping the team can establish an identity before district play next month.

“We have an idea of what we can do, we’re just not doing it yet,” he said. “I can’t really be critical of these guys, because between the beach weeks and the vacations and this and that, we just haven’t played enough. We view it as our games are our practice opportunities. Hopefully we can get a little momentum.”

Post 64 starter Clay Hayes gave up a run apiece in the first two innings and then a four-spot in the top of the third. Zayne Wolfe’s two-run double and Mason Hanning’s two-run single helped Post 21 go up 6-1 early.

Marietta, which scored on a Zach Cunningham sacrifice fly in the second, added four more runs in the bottom of the third. Three of those runs came in via errors before Cunningham collected another sac fly to make it 6-5.

Isaac Danford led off the fifth with a triple and scored Brandon Neville’s sac fly to tie the game.

With Neville on the mound in relief of Hayes, Athens went up 8-6 in the seventh, thanks to Trey Nuzum’s RBI single and Hanning’s bases-loaded walk.

With Post 21 starter Austin Coleman still on the mound in the seventh, Zach Deskins collected an RBI single to make it 8-7. Marietta then jumped on relievers Hanning and Austin Bauer in the eighth. Dawson scored on Turner Hill’s fielder’s choice and Hill later came around to score on a balk, giving Marietta its first lead of the game, 9-8. Boyd Bingler, who entered the game in the eighth, followed with a two-run single down the third-base line as Post 64 entered the ninth with a seemingly comfortable 11-8 advantage.

But Athens quickly erased its deficit. Kameron Curry scored on Coleman’s RBI single before Waylon Bradbury plated two with a double to right-center to tie the game. Kaleb Hill then tripled to left-center to give Post 21 a 12-11 lead, but Hill was stranded on third after Hiser settled down on the mound.

Marietta went back to work in the bottom half of the inning. The game was tied on Gandee’s bases-loaded single to center and then Danford’s bloop to shallow left was misplayed, allowing Hiser to score the winning run.

Hiser took the mound victory, walking four and striking out three in two innings of relief. Hayes walked five and struck out two over the first three innings, while Neville issued five free passes and fanned three in four frames.

“It’s a concern,” Brewer said of the bases on balls. “The most important pitch in baseball is strike one. We’re just not getting enough of those. We’ve got to throw strikes and if we’ve got to give in a little bit as far as stuff to get strikes, it’s well worth it.”

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