The Pleasantville Baseball team won their opening game of the Class 1A State Baseball Tournament at Principal Park in Des Moines last night over West Sioux in nine innings 5-4.

The Trojans offense got started early as they jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead on the back of a Jesse Nichols RBI single and excellent base running by Cassin Garr, who scored on a wild pitch. Pleasantville starter Zeb Adreon escaped a first inning bases-loaded one out jam by striking out Justin Negaard and Jake Lynott of West Sioux and allowed no runs to score, and was effective through the first six innings he pitched only giving up two runs. Much like their game against BGM in the Substate, Pleasantville held a 3-2 lead heading into the seventh before disaster struck. Adreon allowed a walk to the Falcons leadoff hitter Kezden Blankenship and a game tying RBI single to Tucker Vanderfeen before he was pulled in favor of Josh Luna. Opposing pitcher Porter Hummel then blasted a frozen rope line drive single straight back up the middle for the West Sioux Falcons to take a 4-3 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh.

The Trojans did not give up however, Zeb Adreon started off the inning with a single and scored the tying run on a Josh Luna monster blast to left-center that just missed going over the wall for a home run. The game ended in a bottom of the ninth, when Cassin Garr started with a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a Zeb Adreon single, which brought up the Class 1A leader in HR and RBI’s Josh Luna. Luna hit a fly ball to right field, and Garr remained at second to advance to third on a tag, but the relay throw from pulled Falcons starting pitcher and new second baseman Porter Hummel sailed over third base and into the dugout which resulted in Garr scoring the winning run. The Trojans will move on the state semifinal on Thursday at 1 pm against North Linn, who upset #2 seeded Van Buren Community.

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