Survive and advance

Blaine Hines was on cruise control.
Ross Taylor was enjoying a perfect night from the lead-off spot.
And Kirk Huismann was in center field, pondering his Wednesday night start in American Legion Fifth District Tournament action at Hidden Valley Park.
Suddenly, Hines was out of the game for Blue Springs Post 499/Fike, Taylor’s seemingly meaningless RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning was the potential game-winning run and Huismann was on the mound facing the two hottest hitters on Oak Grove Post 379 Monday night.
“A lot can change in an inning,” said Taylor, who had three hits, was hit by pitches twice and drove in two runs to help Fike hang on for a 5-4 victory. “We found that out in the ninth inning tonight.”
Fike took a 5-1 lead into the ninth with Hines pitching a masterful game. He had 13 strikeouts and had allowed just three hits when he hit the first two batters he faced.
“Curveballs that got away from me,” Hines said of the reason for the hit batters. “I was all right through eight innings, but I was getting a little bit tired and lost some command on my curve.”
Suddenly, a 5-1 lead was in danger as a walk loaded the bases with just one out.
Huismann was summoned from center field and he coaxed Steve Shippy to hit what looked to be a double play ball to shortstop Stephen Montisano.
“I was going for the ball, and it must have hit something,” said Montisano, who had a two-run single in Fike’s four-run second inning. “I went one way, the ball went the other way and they have two runs and two runners on base.
“It was scary.”
Huismann walked the next batter to load the bases. He then had to face Fifth District All-Star Game MVP Kyle Thornton.
“No. 3 (Thornton) is a great hitter and I had to be careful with him, with the tying and winning runs on,” Huismann said.
Thornton hit a fly ball to deep right field to score the third run of the inning and make it a 5-4 game.
The next Oak Grove batter was the always dangerous David Richards.
“David is a power hitter, so I tried to set him up – and he fouled off every pitch I threw,” Huismann said.
After fouling off a half dozen pitches, Richards struck out on a high fastball.
“It was up and out of the zone,” Huismann said. “I was hoping he’d chase it.”
Huismann will still start Wednesday’s game, against the winner of today’s 5 p.m. game between Independence Post 21 and Raytown Post 596.
“Kirk didn’t throw that many pitches, so it was like a bullpen for him,” Fike manager Jim Moran said. “I was having flashbacks in the ninth inning of all the times Ron’s (Ron Johnson, Hi-Style manager) teams have beat me in the ninth inning in zone or district tournaments.
“Blaine was great for eight innings and Kirk came in and got it done in the ninth. If it had gone another inning, I don’t know if we still could have used him Wednesday.”
Moran praised the performance of Taylor, who was in the middle of Fike’s offense all night.
“Ross is not your prototypical leadoff hitter, but he’ll take a walk, he’ll get hit occasionally and he’s a smart base runner,” Moran said. “He had a great night tonight, and as it turned out, we needed everything he gave us.”