August 14, 2021

ALWS Game 9: Mississippi clinches semifinal berth

By Richard Walker
Baseball

Tupelo hands Honolulu its first loss of the season and takes tiebreakers to earn one of the Stars Division slots.

Twice in six days, Tupelo, Miss., Post 49 coach McKinley Holland has turned to right-handed pitcher Davis Oswalt to keep his season alive.

Oswalt won for the second time in those six days on Saturday as Tupelo knocked off previously unbeaten Honolulu, Haw., 4-0 to clinch one of two spots in the Stars Division in American Legion World Series pool play at Keeter Stadium at Veterans Field in Shelby, N.C.

"Davis has pitched so many big games in this program," Holland said. "This is his third year pitching for us. He just throws strikes. And he competed his tail off tonight. He was phenomenal and our defense made so many great plays behind him."

Oswalt pitched Tupelo to an 11-3 win over Florence in Pelham, Ala., last Sunday in the Southeast Regional championship game.

But Saturday night's task was larger — and came with the pressure of facing a Honolulu team that entered with a 33-0 record on the season.

"This was a bigger stage and the atmosphere was great," Oswalt said of pitching shortly after a Military Appreciation parade of veterans from all military branches that included former Navy Lieutenant (and major leaguer) Mitch Harris. "We knew they were a great, fundamentally-sound team because they were unbeaten."

Tupelo's offense was extremely efficient in the win that improved Post 49 to 31-4 this season.

In the top of the first inning, Tupelo used three walks, one hit batter, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly to take a 2-0 lead.

In the third, Post 49 made it 3-0 on a single, hit batter, stolen base and a RBI groundout.

And in the seventh, Tupelo accounted for its final run on a walk, a wild pitch, a passed ball and an RBI groundout.

"Our kids have just got super confidence," Holland said. "They're absolute junkyard dogs. We preach for them to stay in it every pitch and that's what they did. We had two hits and we found a way to manufacture four runs out of that."

Oswalt finished with a three-hit shutout with one walk and one strikeout in 86 pitches.

"We had to do what we had to do to come out with the win," said Oswalt, a Northeast Mississippi Community College signee who improved to 7-0 on the season.

Jackson McCoy had both of Tupelo's hits and two of its four runs. Catcher Ben Davis threw out two Honolulu base stealers. And Tupelo's defense made only one fielding error.

For Honolulu, which got hits from Ethan Thomas, Ty Yukumoto and Micah Zeller, the loss could end a magical season with a 33-1 record.

Entering Sunday's final day of the pool play, Honolulu will need help to advance. A Ridge, Md., loss to Fargo, N.D., would sew up a spot for Honolulu. Or if Ridge wins, it needs to allow two or more runs or fail to score more than four runs for Honolulu to win on a tiebreaker.

 

 

 

  

 

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