A fine start by Jaxon Feasby was not enough to clinch a win for the Heritage Patriots Wednesday as they fell to the Garrett Railroaders in extra innings, 7-6.
Feasby threw six innings and kept Heritage in the game, but the Railroaders got to him in the top of the seventh inning, turning a 6-3 Patriot lead at home into an extra-inning game.
The visitors actually took the early lead, mostly due to the power hitting of Josh Hogle, who homered in the third and doubled in another run in the fourth.
Heritage answered back in the bottom of the fourth (see below), though, with an RBI double by Lucas Taylor and successive run-scoring hits by Jacob Krauss and Corbin Saalfrank, which gave the Patriots their first lead of the night.
Krauss and Saalfrank repeated that feat in the sixth inning with two more big hits, but the seventh inning had a different plan than what coach Lehrman might have wanted.
Josh Hogle, Feasby’s nemesis from earlier in the game, put two on with none out to start a rally and the next hit brought out the hook for the Heritage starter, who was replaced on the mound by Max Mirelez. Before the reliever could get out of the inning, two runs were surrendered and the lead was lost.
The Patriots tried to bunt and move over Taylor after a leadoff single in the seventh inning, but Adrian Porter, who came into the game in relief of Anthony Bontempo in the fifth inning, got the out he needed to force extra innings.
Garrett led off their half of the eighth with a single from Gage Pyck and bunted him over. Mirelez got a big out on a pop up to Garrett Oliver in foul territory with Hogle on deck. That made the decision easy for Lehrman, who immediately walked Hogle with a base open, but Ari Hippensteel delivered the game-winning hit to left, scoring Pyck.
Porter then got the Patriots out 1-2-3 in the bottom half for the victory.
Taylor had three hits for the Patriots, while Krauss and Saalfrank did their damage at the bottom of the order.
Heritage will take their 16-4 record across the border to take on Tinora Thursday.
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