Blissfield Post 325 downs Adrian Post 275 4-3 in tight Veteran's Night affair

ADRIAN –– Blissfield Post 325 defeated Adrian Post 275, 4-3, on Thursday in a tightly contested Veteran’s Night game. 

After last year’s Veteran’s Night was cancelled, both American Legions came together to honor local veterans for their service with a pregame ceremony featuring renditions of the Star Spangled Banner, God Bless America and the playing of taps. 

“(It was) a great experience for all our kids to see all these veterans come out,” said Post 325 coach Matt Jones. “Special night. A couple of our kids had their family members here so that was a real awesome experience for them.” 

Post 275 wasted no time taking a 1-0 lead in the first after Caden Oliver (Parma Western) drove in Braylon Stover (Morenci) with a single through the gap. Miles Frank (Madison) and Max Bledsoe (Tecumseh) contributed a pair of singles in a fruitless second inning for Adrian as Blissfield struggled to get any offensive traction in the early going. 

Post 325 eventually found life after Landon Duval (Blissfield) and Brendan Korsnack (Temperance Bedford) led off the inning with singles to shallow left field before Gavin Gelso (Monroe Jefferson) walked to load the bases with one out. 

Several passed balls and defensive miscues allowed Duval and Korsnack to advance and score, giving Post 325 a one run lead. Then, Cole Crouch (Whiteford) hit a tall pop fly to shallow right field before Post 275 misplayed it, allowing Gelso to score from third and put Blissfield up 3-1. 

Another error brought in Crouch to make it 4-1 before Bledsoe closed the frame with a pair of groundouts. 

“It was a little ugly ball,” Post 325 coach Matt Jones of Post 325’s four-run charge. “We ran the bases a little bit and did what we had to do to get guys in.” 

Adrian answered in the bottom of the third with a leadoff single from Nik Shadley (Clinton). Shadley advanced to second on a passed ball, took third on Stover’s flyout and scored to make it 4-2 on another passed ball. 

Post 325 loaded the bases once more in the top of the fourth with two outs, but Stover induced a groundout from Ethan Stines (Blissfield) to close the frame and keep Post 275 within two runs. 

After Oliver walked and Tristan Hayes (Adrian) was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the fourth, Oliver took after Shadley to make his way to third and score on a pair of passed balls to bring Post 275 closer, 4-3, before Miles Frank struck out to end the inning. 

From there, the bats went completely silent on both ends with 1-2-3 frames for both teams in the fifth. 

Despite leadoff walks from Korsnack and Kage Little (Wauseon) in the sixth and seventh respectively, Post 275 pitchers Gunner Lansdell (Adrian) and Hayes held strong to put themselves in a position to wage a comeback effort in the bottom of the seventh. 

Until Jack Nigh (Temperance Bedford) took the mound. In one of his few pitching performances all year, Nigh slammed the door on Post 275 with a groundout and two strikeouts to hand Post 325 the narrow 4-3 win.