“I never feel confident until the runs are across the plate, but I liked our chances in that inning,” Justin Fleener admitted. “Logan executed the bunt perfectly and then Sam and Kayden put the bat on the ball.”

For brother Chris, who is in his first year as coach at Fairfield after coaching in Effingham for several years, it was “one that got away.”

“We made a couple critical mistakes,” he noted. “We didn’t hit a cut-off man and our catcher overthrew third base. That cost us two runs in the fourth, which proved critical. We did a lot of things right today, but they had several soft ground balls that were just hit in the right spot.”

Fairfield led 4-0 at one time after scoring a single tally in the second and adding three more runs in the third.

T-Town got an RBI double by Evan Wermert in the third and then scored two more runs in the fourth on a run-scoring single by Roepke and that throwing error by the Fairfield catcher.

But the Mules added three runs in the sixth, getting an RBI single from Blake Pruitt and a two-run single from Max Puckett.

“This is the best game we’ve played so far,” Chris Fleener noted. “Offensively, our bats came around, but we didn’t do some things very well defensively. It’s early yet, and we play a lot of young kids, but I saw some positive things today.”

Konkel, the fourth THS pitcher of the game, got the win. Andy Niebrugge was the starter and went the first five innings. He allowed seven hits and four runs, while walking four and striking out seven. Pruemer and Caleb Siemer combined to pitch one inning.

In the second game, the Shoes jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but the Mules battled back to tie the game at 5-5 and force extra innings.

In the bottom of the ninth, Mitch Althoff led off with a base hit and Bushur reached on an error. With two outs, Althoff tried to steal third and scored the winning run on a throwing error.

Ben Goeckner, the fourth T-Town pitcher of the game, was terrific in relief. He went the final 3.1 innings and didn’t allow a hit. He walked two and struck out three.

The Shoes scored two runs in both the first and second innings.

In the first, Max Niebrugge walked and scored on a double by Mitch Althoff. The second run scored on a wild pitch. Cade Buehnerkemper was hit by a pitch and Luke Koester singled in the second inning and both runners eventually scored on errors.

Caleb Bloemer scored the fifth run in the fifth. He led off with a single, stole second and then scored after two passed balls.

Fairfield combined three walks, two hits and an error to tally three times in the sixth to tie the game.

“I give Chris’s team credit,” Justin Fleener said. “He’s got a bunch of young kids, but they battled at the plate and played hard.

“This is a typical early spring,” the THS coach added. “We’ve been struggling, especially with our bats. But just like Chris’s team will do, we’ll work things out. I believe both teams are going to get better.”

The Shoes are now 6-2. They will play at home Tuesday against Benton and then travel to Olney on Thursday.

St. Joe-Ogden 10, Teutopolis 7 (8 innings)

St. Joe-Ogden scored the tying run in the seventh and then tallied three times in the eighth to post a 10-7 victory over the Shoes Friday afternoon.

The Shoes led 5-2, trailed 6-5 and led 7-6 before the Spartans scored the tying run on a passed ball in the seventh. The visitors then combined one walk and three hits, including a two-run double by Keaton Nolan, to come away with the extra-inning win.

St. Joe-Ogden banged out 15 hits in the game, including a 5-for-5 performance by Hayden Brazelton in the lead-off spot. He also drove in three runs.

The Shoes had 11 hits, with Sam Bushur collecting three of those. Evan Wermert and Evan Addis both had two hits.

Trailing 2-1 in the third, T-Town put together a four-run inning. Bushur lead off the inning with a double, but was thrown at home trying to score after a base hit by Wermert. A hit batter and a walk then loaded the bases. Derek Konkel had a two-run single, Dylan Pruemer added an RBI hit and the fourth run scored on a wild pitch.

The Spartans fought back to go ahead 6-5, but the Shoes rallied in the fifth for two runs to regain the lead. Mitch Althoff and Bushur had two-out run-scoring singles.

Konkel, the third pitcher of the day for THS, relieved in the seventh and took the loss.