LANCASTER – The Greenville American Legion Post 140 baseball team, under the direction of veteran head coach Chad Henry, defeated Marietta 1-0 in the opening round of the Ohio American Legion State Tournament, getting a complete game 3-hit shutout from Ian Bergman.
“Ian pitched the game of his life this morning,” Henry stated. “All in, win or go home, he gave us everything he had. You can’t ask anyone to do more than what he did this morning.”
Greenville, the visiting team on the field, outhit Marietta 8-3 in a cleanly played defensive game with neither team committing an error.
Post 140 put a starting lineup on the field with second baseman Sam DeLand leading off, followed by Alex Gaerke (SS), Ian Bergman (P), Braeden Wills (LF) in the cleanup slot, Brodie Hart behind the plate doing the catching, Adam Edwards (3B), Brayden Huggins (CF), Owen Mendenhall (1B), and Eli Keiser (RF).
The teams played scoreless through the first five innings before Greenville Post 140 dented the board with Wills leading off with a hard single to left, a one-out double to right off the bat of Edwards, a Huggins walk on four straight pitches loading the bases, and a gutsy missed squeeze bunt leading to a run down Breaden Wills was able to escape for the game’s lone run.
“That’s kind of a nice synopsis of our season,” Coach Henry said. “We play some of the best baseball you can watch at this level, but sometimes stringing together the plays to win has been challenging. This game, the constant pressure enabled the opportunity, and Braeden did everything he had to score.”
Ian Bergman pitched a complete-game, 3-hit shutout, allowing no walks while striking out eight. Bergman was in command on the mound, throwing a total of 87 pitches, 21 balls, and 66 strikes.
Edwards went 2-3 with a single and a double, and DeLand was 2-3 with two singles and a walk to pace Post 140 at the plate. Keiser, Wills, Gaerke, and Mendenhall each accounted for a single. Will scored the game’s only run.
“We were able to keep the pressure up all game,” Coach Henry concluded. “We put a lot of runners on base, but credit to Marietta, they got tough when they needed to and shut us down.”
BOX SCORE
123 456 7 R H E
000 001 0 1 8 0 Greenville
000 000 0 0 3 0 Marietta
