Highland recovers to knock out New Baden in American Legion 5th Division tournament

Austin Gusewelle tossed a five-hitter and his offense backed him up with 11 hits as Highland Post 439 eliminated New Baden Post 321, 6-2, to stay alive in the American Legion 5th Division senior baseball tournament held at Bill McKee Field in West Frankfort.

“It was an impressive performance after what happened yesterday,” said Highland coach Harry Painter. “It’s a credit to those guys that they didn’t think about last night’s game. The guys want to win this thing, so they had to shake it off and play well today.”

Highland’s (16-8) next game at 4:45 p.m. Thursday against either Herrin Post 645 or Metropolis Post 306, who played the late game on Wednesday.

“We’re a little concerned because we have three games to go with pitching, so we’ll do what we can,” Painter said. “Coming out and getting runs was big even though they were quiet runs. Austin’s off-speed was great today. Seven of the first eight batters went up in the air reaching for that change.”

Austin Gusewelle (2-2) went the distance for Highland coming in just under his pre-determined pitch limit. The right-hander struck out two, walked two and only allowed two runners to reach third.

“I told coach to shut me down at 110 and was lucky to have good plays out in the field to be able to finish the game with two pitches to spare,” Gusewelle said. “For the most part my pitches were working, but it was my defense that made the difference today. Our offense was also key getting those early runs.”

Griffin Welz and Jordan Smith led the 11-hit attack with three hits each. Matt Augustin contributed two hits Welz, Dillon Hallemann, Trent Carriger and Blaine Ray drove in one run each with one run scoring on an error and another on a wild pitch.

After going down in order in the first inning Highland teed off on J.T. Timmerman in the second stringing together four straight hits to take a 2-0 lead.

Smith led off with a single up the middle one out later Augustin joined him on base with a line drive to right. Griffin Welz hit a Texas Leaguer just behind second base which caused Augustin to hold up at first and eventually be thrown out at second leaving runners at the corners with two outs.

Carriger singled to right to drive in the first run and Ray followed with another single to left to drive in the second.

New Baden threatened in the third on a one-out base hit by Timmerman followed by a walk to Nick Strubhart, but Gusewell got out of the jam on a fielder’s choice to short to get the lead runner and a ground out to second.

A three-base throwing error by the third baseman followed by a double by Hallemann to open the third inning upped Highland’s lead to 3-0. Smith followed with a bloop single to left and Timmerman hit Chris Dickman to jam the sacks with no outs.

Timmerman (6-1) got the first out when Augustin hit a hard chopper to short and Ty Dill threw to the plate for the force, but Welz lined to left to score Smith and leave the sacked jammed. The third run scored on a wild pitch, but New Baden finally got a lucky break when Augustin was tagged out overrunning second base on the play. Three pitches later Carriger struck out swinging to end the rally with Highland leading 5-0.

“We just didn’t show up to hit,” said New Baden coach Kaleb Kraljev. “For some reason we were a little flat coming, in fact this whole tournament we haven’t had much offense.”

New Baden began to chip away at Gusewelle in the fourth. Patrick Gaul led off with a single to leff and scored one out later on a double by Alex Phillips. Post 321 sliced another run off the lead in the seventh. Alex Phillips led off with a base hit, advanced third one out later on a double Brendan Schantz and scored on a sacrifice fly by Timmerman.

Highland added a run in the eighth. Augustin led off with a single to left and was bunted to second. After Carriger struck out Ray hit a pop fly that the second baseman.

This story was originally published July 20, 2016 at 8:51 PM with the headline "Highland recovers to knock out New Baden in American Legion 5th Division tournament."