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Sports

Baseball: Evergreen Tops Tinley in Battle of 'Parks'

Evergreen Park 4, Tinley Park 3. Mustang pitcher Jesse McLain gives up two earned runs over seven innings to pick up the win.

Touching All the Bases: Every run was scored in the first three innings of play as an early offensive battle slowly turned into a baseball pitcher’s duel. Evergreen Park hung on to beat Tinley Park 4-3 in the Mustangs' final regular season game. 

The Mustangs took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but Titan leadoff batter Andrew Sebastian erased the lead with a booming homer over the left field fence to tie the game 1-1 after one.

The Evergreen Park bats stayed active in the second. A leadoff walk to Kyle Bock started the inning. Bock scored on Bobby McAvoy’s RBI double. Two batters later, Dillon Knight drove McAvoy home with an RBI double of his own.

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Titans third baseman Nelz Ursich singled and scored off of Josh Simon’s RBI single in the bottom of the second, cutting the lead to 3-2. The teams traded runs again the third, with Evergreen Park leading 4-3.

After a scoreless top of the fourth, the Titans fumbled an opportunity to score in the bottom of the inning. With two successful bunts and an Evergreen Park balk to start the inning, the Titans had runners on second and third with no outs. The next Titan batter grounded out, and the runner on second got caught on the base-paths after some miscommunication. Mustang pitcher Jesse McLain then retired the next Titan batter to escape the inning unscathed. McLain went on to pitch shutout ball, allowing only one hit over the last three innings.

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Patch’s MVP: Evergreen Park pitcher Jesse McClain pitched a complete game, surrendering two earned runs while walking zero Titan batters.

Evergreen Park Leaders: Left fielder Bobby McAvoy (2-for-3, run, two RBIs); center fielder Dillon Knight (1-for-3, RBI double).

Tinley Park Leaders: Second baseman Andrew Sebastian (1-fo-2, home run, hit-by-pitch); relief-pitcher Dylan Osterman (3 strikeouts, 0 runs over 4.2 innings).

Quotable:Titans coach Brian Gibbons on failing to capitalize with two on and none out in the fourth: “We thought we’d be able to bunt on them and have some success, which we did, but we had some miscommunication on a contact play. Base running has just been killing us this year.”

Team Records:Evergreen Park improves to 13-14. Tinley falls to 18-11. 

What’s Next: Both teams play Illiana Christian next, with the Mustangs meeting them Wednesday in regional play. The Titans picked up a game against Illiana for their regular season finale.  

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