Being one of two players on the Neosho Nighthawks American Legion baseball team with a year of college under his belt, Tanner Pogue is probably what you view as one of the veterans on this year’s team.

He probably spent the remainder of Sunday being viewed as a hero.

Pogue delivered perhaps the biggest hit of the season for the Nighthawks, as his two-out RBI single allowed Ty Anderson to trot home from third base for the game-winning run against the Miller Merchants, 5-4, in the second round of the American Legion District 15 playoffs.

The hit completed a two-run rally in the bottom of the ninth inning, as the Nighthawks staved off what would’ve been a major upset against the No. 8 seeded Merchants/39ers.

Pogue, who started at third base for the Crowder baseball team this spring, downplayed the hit.

“We started to get more patient at the plate,” he said. “We started making (Tyler) Abma throw more pitches and get into hitter’s counts. Then, we started to get guys on base.”

Tyler Abma, Miller High School’s ace, threw a gem of a game against the Nighthawks, however he left with the loss. The righthander had 14 strikeouts in 8-plus innings.

This game had essentially four parts spanned over the nine innings played Sunday morning at McDonald County High School.

Miller went up on top from the start as Jeremy Gulick led off the top of the first with a double and scored on Seth Wiehe’s double.

The next five full innings went by without a run put on the board, though both teams had chances. Neosho had three baserunners in the first inning and two more in the second inning, but came up empty handed.

Neosho starter Dakotah Smith delivered some clutch pitching when he got a strikeout to end the third inning to escape a bases-loaded jam.

In the fifth inning, Gulick hit his second double, but Abma lined a shot to shortstop and Pogue made a leaping snare and dove to touch the bag for the out.

The Merchants (14-19) got things cooking in the sixth inning and tacked on another run. Ryan Cobb singled, which was followed by a pair of errors. Smith and Neosho about escaped this jam as well, getting a groundout and a fly ball.

Gulick, the dangerous hitter at the time, was hit by a pitch with two outs to force in a run.
Neosho went to the bullpen to bring in Dallas Randen, who struck out Abma to end the inning.

The Nighthawks (22-11) waited until they had nine outs left in the game before they finally started to get to Abma.

Scott Wilson walked and moved to second when pinch-hitter Alex Wise singled through the left side of the infield. Marion, who was hit in the face with a pitch in the first inning, walked to load the bases.

Anderson followed with a groundball that got a force out for Miller, but Wilson scored to make it 2-1. Anderson stole second base and that was big at the time, as Drew Miller then followed with a 2-run single to make it 3-2.

The game turned into a roller coaster of highs and lows for both teams in the ninth inning. Abma reached second base on a two-base error to open the top of the ninth.
Wiehe followed by getting hit by a pitch and Garrett Hillman laid down a sac bunt, moving the runners over.

With the infield in, Randen got a strikeout for the second out. With two outs, an out from a hard-fought win, Josh Eutsler doubled down the third base line to drive in both runners, making it 4-3. Randen then got a strikeout to retire the side.

Neosho had to get a run to force extra innings and two runs to win. They chose the latter when they came to bat in the bottom half of the inning.

Wise walked and scooted around to third base when Marion hit a slicing double to right field that rolled to the fence.

That forced a pitching change, and Abma was pulled after throwing 8-plus innings and a 151 pitches.

Wiehe moved in from second base to pitch.

He walked Anderson to load the bases, but got a grounder from Miller that forced Wise out at home for the first out of the inning.

Kyle Dickens then hit a sacrifice fly to left field that scored Marion for the game-tying run, but also put two outs on the board.

Pogue then came up and delivered his game-winning heroics.

“I was going up looking for a fastball to hit,” said Pogue of his last at-bat. “The first one I saw, I fouled it. I knew he wasn’t going to throw a curve ball and risk it getting away from the catcher with a guy on third base. I figured he’d give me pitches mostly up and most likely outside. He threw a fastball away.

“I kind of thought it was caught at first and then I thought it would go foul. Finally, we were able to catch a break.”

Neosho coach Eddie Crupper said, “We stayed disciplined enough at the plate and we didn’t lose focus and scratched out the runs. I had heard that (Abma) has lost his stuff, but that isn’t true. He was overmatching the middle of our lineup. The question became not if, but when, was I going to bring Dallas in. Dakotah did a great job, only one earned run.

“You have got to keep playing against Miller. They gave us hard games last year and every one of the runs you will have to earn.”

Neosho plays the Carthage Merchants, the No. 4 seed, in the semifinals today at 7:30 p.m.