Prairiland Patriots Give an Incredible Last at Bat Comeback Win Over the Winnsboro Red Raiders || Content Sponsored by: Weezy’s

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Wyatt Moore’s 7th-inning triple drove in Madox Yaross and Fischer Morrison to break a 5-5 tie and give the Prairiland Patriots an incredible last-at-bat comeback win over the Winnsboro Red Raiders Tuesday night.

The win kept Prairiland’s district record perfect at 3-0. Winnsboro fell to 1-2 in district play.

The Patriots entered the 7th inning down 5-0, and although they had runners in scoring position a couple of times earlier in the game, had been unable to plate them. In their final at bat, the Patriots broke out the hot bats, with three triples in the inning, including back-to-back three-baggers by Austen Gordon and Mason Pusateri.

Jayden Whitaker started the inning with a walk, followed by a line-drive single to center field by senior Dakota Berquist. After Luke Rhoades got aboard to load the bases, Gordon crushed a fly ball to center field to clear the bases.

Winnsboro opted for a pitching change, but the very first pitch from reliever Hoyt Brown scooted past the Red Raiders catcher and Gordon scored, cutting the lead to 5-4.

Pusateri followed with his triple to right field putting the tying run just 90 feet away from home plate. The speedy senior wouldn’t be there long as Yaross executed a perfect sacrifice squeeze bunt to score Pusateri. Yaross remained at first base after a Winnsboro error on the play.

Two batters later, Morrison reached base on a hard ground ball that Winnsboro’s third baseman was unable to corral. Moore then drilled a 2-strike pitch to the wall in left field, driving in the final two runs of the game, putting the Patriots up 7-5.

With two outs in the bottom of the 7th, Rhoades, the hard-throwing Patriots right hander, made quick work of the first two Red Raiders batters but ran into a little trouble, walking Brown and starting the next batter off with a couple of pitches wide of the zone.

Senior third-baseman Yaross, who started the game on the mound for the Patriots, called time out and went to the mound to give Rhoades, a junior, a moment to regain his composure. The move worked as Rhoades bounced back to strike out the final Winnsboro batter and earn the win.

Rhoades pitched 4 innings of relief and struck out 10 of the 16 batters he faced to earn the win.

The Red Raiders jumped on the Patriots early, scoring 5 runs in the first inning. Winnsboro had no extra-base hits, and only one of their hits was a fly ball out of the infield. Instead, they used “small ball” with three infield hits, a bunt and a grounder that found a hole between Patriots third baseman Jack Phillips and shortstop Keeton Kinabrew.

Winnsboro collected 6 hits in the first inning, but did not get another base hit the remainder of the game. Yaross started the game and pitched well, throwing strikes and allowing only the ground ball hits. He was pulled after three innings after throwing 60 pitches, making him still available to pitch in Friday night’s matchup between the same two teams, if needed.

The Patriots had chances to chip away at the lead in the 2nd and 4th innings but just couldn’t get a timely hit. In the second inning, Kinabrew drew a walk to start the inning and moved to third when Morrison turned a sacrifice bunt into a base hit with no outs. The two were stranded on base at the end of the inning.

Likewise in the 4th inning. Morrison and Moore were both in scoring position following a walk and base hit, respectively, but the Patriots couldn’t get the runs across, which set the stage for the 7th inning heroics.

Pusateri finished the night 3-for-3 at the plate. Moore had 2 hits and 2 RBI, and Gordon had 3 RBI.

Prairiland and Winnsboro will battle again Friday night at Patriots Field in Pattonville. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m.