City Centre Park in St. Peters always has been a tough place for Washington Post 218 to play and Friday’s Senior Legion game proved to be another typical contest.
Washington (21-6, 14-1) claimed a 2-1 victory over the host St. Peters club in Ninth District action.
The victory allowed Washington to clinch at least a tie for the Ninth District regular season title.
Washington broke a scoreless tie in the seventh inning with a run and then added an insurance run in the top of the ninth. Sam Deschenes played a key role to produce both runs.
“We were finally able to score a run in the seventh on a hard-hit ball by Sam Deschenes down the third base line that got past the third baseman,” Gardner said. “Sam again came through in the ninth with a big RBI that ended up being a very big run.”
Post 218 needed that because St. Peters scored in the bottom of the inning to cut the final score to 2-1.
Brendan Kleekamp tossed eight shutout innings for Washington, allowing just four hits. He struck out eight St. Peters batters.
“We had plenty of chances early in the game to score, but just could not get a timely hit,” Gardner said. “Fortunately Brendan Kleekamp gave us a great pitching performance and our defense was outstanding.”
Trent Leimkuehler pitched the ninth, allowing one run on one hit and two walks. He struck out two and earned the save.
Washington outhit St. Peters in the game, 10-4. Post 218 also made two errors to one for St. Peters.
Offensively, Dilan Bollmann, Leimkuehler and Jack Kopmann each had two hits. Matt Jones, Deschenes, Luke Hasenjaeger and Dustin Howard each had one hit.
Grant Eckelkamp and Bollmann scored the runs. Deschenes produced an RBI.
Leimkuehler walked twice while Eckelkamp and Howard each walked once.
Bollmann added a sacrifice. Eckelkamp and Deschenes were hit by pitches and Kopmann stole a base.
“Jack Kopmann made two really good plays at third,” Gardner said. “The diving stop to his left on a one-hop line drive was one of the best defensive plays we have made all year.”
Tyler Rutledge went the distance for St. Peters, allowing two runs (one earned) on 10 hits and four walks. He struck out two.
Brendan Klein, Tyler Davis, Sam Oates and Luke Mohr had hits for St. Peters. Klein scored the run.
