RUSSELLVILLE, Mo. - After ending its seven-game losing streak Friday night, the Indians blanked the Missouri Military Academy 11-0 Saturday morning to put them in position to win the Russellville Round Robin Tournament.
Jamestown then outlasted the School of the Osage 11-5 to set up the championship game between the Indians and the Eagles.
In the title game, Jamestown's Garrett Wolfe threw 137 pitches in a complete-game performance, leading the Eagles to the 4-3 win in eight innings against Russellville. He allowed three earned runs on seven hits while striking out 12 and walking two.
"Wolfe did well," said Jamestown coach Jordan Hoecker. "He didn't have his best stuff from the start, and he came out and worked through it. We focused on fundamentals and made some adjustments."
If the first inning was any indication of how the game would go for Wolfe, he was in trouble. After getting the first two outs in three pitches, he allowed four straight singles as Russellville jumped out to the 2-0 lead.
"They were finding the holes, and that happens some times," Hoecker said. "But we just stayed focused and didn't let it get to us and played the rest of the game really well."
Wolfe went on to allow just three more hits in the last seven innings, retiring nine straight Russellville batters midway through the game.
"I was a little sketchy in the beginning, but I pulled through," Wolfe said. "I kept my head in it in the whole time."
Down 2-0 entering the fourth, the Eagles rallied in the inning to tie the game. Jamestown had stranded five baserunners to that point.
Colton DeVore earned a walk to leadoff, then Garrett Jones doubled to to left field to put runners on the corners. Wyatt Hunziker grounded out to third during the next at-bat to bring home DeVore. Jones later scored when Austin Flippin reached on an error by the center fielder.
That was one of Russellville's four costly errors that was the difference in the game.
"Obviously a one-run game comes down to whoever executes, and I kind of feel like we let a couple of things slip through and didn't execute as well as we probably needed to," Russellville coach Lucas Branson said.
In the sixth inning, an error by the third baseman allowed Jones to reach base. Jones was later out at second on a fielder's choice, but Hunziker was able to reach first before the potential double play. With two outs, Flippin sent a shot down the line to start a two-out rally.
"Flip, he's had a heck of a last few days," Hoecker said. "We're getting to the point where he's hitting more line drives than fly balls. He came through when it counted."
The next batter, Alex Gerlach, singled to left to give Jamestown its first lead of the game at 3-2 lead.
But Russellville wasn't done, tying the game on a dropped third-strike. With the bases-loaded and two outs. Cory Minor made an attempt at a high fastball, but it was just out of reach of the catcher to allow all the runners to advance.
"We were fortunate with the strikeout," Branson said. "He didn't get the ball in play, but he knew what to do and ran down to first base as fast as he could, and we were able to scratch a run across."
Neither team could push a run across in the seventh inning, although Russellville had a runner on second base only to see Wolfe pitch out of the trouble.
"He did a decent job of moving his pitches around, and threw strikes and kept us off balance," Branson said. "I felt like we didn't take advantage of situations where we had runners on base and we were a little hesitant to swing the bat."
In the top of the eighth, Hunziker singled to center to lead off the inning. After he stole second, Hunziker moved to third when Cole Theissen laid down a perfect bunt.
"That was huge," Hoecker said. "Cole had a rough at-bat the time before, and he came through for us in that one. It was a big spot for him and it was good for him to get redemption."
Hunziker scored the go-ahead run when Flippin reached base after an error on the third baseman.
Wolfe pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning to seal the game and the championship for Jamestown.
On top of his pitching performance, Wolfe was 2-for-4 from the plate with a double, and Jones was 2-for-4 with two doubles.
Seth Kuda and Ryland Johnson each pitched four innings for the Indians. Kuda got the start allowing two runs on three hits, and Johnson allowed two runs on four hits.
"I'd rather have a game like this than the 11-0 game this morning," Branson said. "Sometimes you don't get much out of that. I feel like we're right there, and that's a good sign."
Jamestown (13-3) will host Prairie Home at 5 p.m. Monday at 5 p.m. and Russellville (5-11) will travel Monday to New Bloomfield for a 5 p.m. contest.