With two more teams being eliminated, the finals are set moving into championship Wednesday of the Class C American Legion baseball state tournament.
From Eaton Field, the ‘Paul Eaton’ retirement weekend continued with a fourth day of competition for the Wakefield Post 81 Seniors against a fourth different opponent on Tuesday.
Wakefield Post 81 sustained a first inning deficit and held onto the 5-3 victory to improve to 23-18 over the summer. Palmer-Wolbach-Greeley Post 120/236/186 ended their season at 21-9.
Both teams scored three runs in the first inning followed by Wakefield bringing in a run during the home half of the second. Following three scoreless innings, Wakefield added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth. Final favored Wakefield Post 81 winning 5-3 as both teams recorded six hits. (Wakefield finished with three errors, PWG had one error).
Cael Johnson tripled and drove in three runs; Cade Johnson doubled and drove in a run as Mason Lamprecht doubled and scored for Wakefield.
Jacob Birkley singled, drove in a run and scored; Tayton Salmon and Jesse Lundahl both singled and scored as Adrian Flores scored.
Johnny Birkley (108 pitches) picked up the win in six innings allowing three runs (two earned) off four hits while striking out two batters and walking three. Jacob Birkley (13) earned the save allowing two hits.
Wakefield was to advance to championship Wednesday of the Class C Senior American Legion baseball state tournament and play at 4 p.m. Wakefield would need two wins on Wednesday to win Class C while Malcolm Post 354 would just need to win once to defend their back-to-back Class C Senior Legion titles.
Malcolm picked up a 10-2 win over Tecumseh Tuesday evening to improve to 26-5 as Tecumseh ended their season at 22-5.
Wakefield suffered a 9-2 loss against Malcolm on Sunday earlier in the tournament.
This marks the 17th championship game appearance for Wakefield in Class C Seniors history and 26th overall appearance during an American Legion baseball final for Wakefield (16 in Class C Seniors, six in Class C Juniors and three in Class B Seniors). Their last appearance in a state final was in 2010 when Wakefield defeated Creighton in the Class C Senior championship game hosted by Dewitt (Tri-County).
For Malcolm, they've won back-to-back Class C Senior state titles and also won in 2016 over Creighton in Ainsworth. (defeated DCB last year in Rushville and won against DCB in 2022 in Wisner). The Malcolm Juniors program has won three straight (2022-24) and also won in 2012.
