By Staff
Although the Brewton American Legion Post 79 baseball team missed out on one opportunity to win, they did not miss out on their second.
Brewton reached the .500 mark for the first time since the start of the season Tuesday when they notched a 12-9, eight-inning win at Slocomb High School against Samson.
Brewton appeared to have the contest well in hand when it entered the bottom of the seventh inning with a 9-5 lead.
That all changed when Samson got back-to-back one-out doubles followed by an infield error, a walk and a two-run triple that tied the game at 9-9 and forced extra innings.
Post 79 was able to snatch back the victory in the top of the eighth inning when it struck for three runs. Chris Graham started the rally with a double and R.J. Thompson drilled a single. With two out, Jordan Ball was hit by a pitch and Joseph Turner walked. Brad Lannom then came up with the key blow of the inning with a two-run double that put Brewton up for good.
Post 79 (7-7) had originally built a 6-0 lead with three runs in both the first and second innings. An RBI groundout by Thompson, a double by Reed, a single by Ball, an error and an RBI groundout by Lannom led to the first three runs.
Graham and Clay Mather both had RBI singles and Ball ripped an RBI double for the second inning runs.
After Samson cut that lead in half with a three-run frame of its own in the bottom of the second inning, Brewton ran its lead to 7-3 in the fourth inning courtesy of an RBI single by Jacob Salter.
Samson pulled within 7-5 with two runs in the bottom of the fifth, but Mather doubled and scored on Reed's sacrifice fly in the sixth to make it 8-5. Salter then doubled in Lannom in the seventh inning to make it 9-5.
Evan Johnson worked the final three innings for the win after Reed went the first five.
Brewton, which participated in the Pensacola Tournament for the Fourth of July holiday weekend, is off until next Saturday when travels to Tuscaloosa Central for a 3 p.m. doubleheader.
At Slocomb
Brewton 330 011 13 – 12 16 4
Samson 030 020 40 – 9 13 2