American Legion Baseball State Tournament: Beckley Bash stays alive with walk-off win over Clarksburg

BECKLEY BASH POST 32 ERASES A 5-1 DEFICIT TO BEAT CLARKSBURG 6-5

Morgantown - Friday morning at the West Virginia American Legion Baseball State Tournament, the mission was simple for Beckley Bash Post 32.

Win or go home.

The Bash boys decided they would stick around for awhile.

Fighting back from a 5-1 deficit, Beckley earned the walk-off, 6-5 win over Clarksburg Post 13 on a double by Maddex Sims at Mylan Park.

Prior to the heroics from the former Woodrow Wilson all-stater, Beckley had some key performances along the way.

With his team struggling and down 5-1 in the top of the second inning, head coach Jordan Meadows handed the ball to Shady Spring all-stater Sam Barnett.

Barnett was up to the challenge.

Needing to squelch a five-run outburst by Clarksburg, Barnett did much more to keep his team in the game.

After recording the final out of the second inning, the big right-hander held Clarksburg scoreless over the next five frames.

With Barnett doing his job on the hill, Beckley slowly chipped away at the lead.

Grayson Kesterson singled in the bottom of the second and moved to second on a walk. The former Nicholas County standout then stole third base and raced home on an errant throw.

A bases loaded walk to Brayden Kiblinger in the third inning trimmed the deficit to two runs, but Beckley could not score over the next two frames.

A one-out walk to Degan Williams followed by a single from Cole Cunningham gave Beckley life in the sixth.

A fly out dimmed the hopes slightly, but Greenbrier East standout Ashton Cochran answered the call with a solid double, scoring both runners to tie the game.

Barnett then weathered a lead-off error in the top of the seventh by erasing the next three batters setting the stage for Sims' heroics.

Brayden Kiblinger hit a one-out single and stole second base to move into scoring position before Sims came to the dish two batters later with two outs.

Sims ripped the second pitch he saw for a two-hopper to the left field fence for the game winner.

Beckley will now play another elimination game Saturday scheduled for 4 p.m.

Post 32 will play the loser between Charleston Post 65 and Morgantown Post 2.