Newton Post 20 Wins Fifth Division Crown

Newton Post 20 moves on to State Tournament action.

Newton Post 20 claimed the championship of the Senior Legion Fifth Division Baseball Tournament Wednesday at Aviston and did it in exciting fashion.

The championship had to go a second game after Salem Post 128 came through the loser bracket to beat Newton 3-0 behind a two-hit shutout by Max Phillips.

Salem scored two unearned runs in the first and a run in the third. Newton's Nate Meinhart gave up only four hits and only one earned run in suffering the tough-luck loss.

Newton's only hits were singles by Paul Thoele and Nate Meinhart.

The loss forced a second game. Salem jumped out on top with two runs in the first.

Newton came back in the second as John Grunloh, Paul Thoele and Nick Cohorst had consecutive singles and Mason Conlin added an RBI single.

Salem pushed the score to 3-2 in the second. In the fifth, Newton tied the game as Grunloh reached on an error and scored on a base hit by Cohorst.

Then Newton exploded with five runs in the sixth. Ben Britton had a double and Noah Wagy had a two RBI double.

Newton added a run in the top of the seventh and that proved to be the game-winner. Evan Bohnhoff led off with a walk and eventually came around to score on a wild pitch.

Salem made it close as it scored five runs in the bottom of the seventh but Newton hung on for the 9-8 victory. Wagy was the winning pitcher going the final 2 2/3 innings. Zach Jansen went the first 4 1/3 innings, giving up only three runs.

Newton will compete in the State Tournament, hosted in Alton, Saturday at 11 a.m.

Fifth Division Tournament

Newton -- Jansen, single; Meinhart, single, 1 RBI; Wagy, double, 2 RBI; Grunloh, single; Thoele, single, double; Cohorst, 4 singles, 3 RBI; Conlin, single, 1 RBI; Britton, double