Starting off with the play-in game of the five-team Jefferson City Wood Bat Tournament, the Jefferson City Post 5 Juniors needed three straight wins to capture first place Sunday at Vivion Field.
Post 5 got the job done in the opener, beating the Central Missouri Phenom 6-0, but Jefferson City came up one strike shy of reaching the title game, as the top-seeded Missouri Bulldogs rallied from a six-run deficit to win 7-6 in walk-off fashion.
Gavin Bernskoetter allowed just three hits in five innings to get the win against the Phenom. He also walked three and struck out seven. Trent Morrow struck out one in one inning of relief.
Post 5 scored in the bottom of the first, then added two more runs in the second. Wyatt Luebbert hit an RBI triple to center field and then scored on a groundout to give Jefferson City a 3-0 lead.
In the fourth, Post 5 added three more runs to build a six-run lead.
Luebbert went 2-for-3, adding a a single in the sixth. Parker Bax finished with a pair of singles.
In the semifinal game against the Bulldogs, Post 5 had a 6-0 lead through the top of the fifth inning.
Jefferson City scored twice in the first inning and added two more runs in the fourth. Bax and Alex Grellner hit back-to-back RBI singles in the fifth to build the lead to six runs.
The Bulldogs answered with four runs in the bottom of the fifth. After a scoreless sixth, they loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh. Carson Birck hit a bases-clearing double to left field off Jackson Voss to end the game.
Grellner pitched the first 4 innings for Post 5. He allowed four runs on seven hits with one walk and four strikeouts. He had retired nine straight batters before the Bulldogs collected four hits off him in the fifth.
Drew Voss pitched the next two innings, taking the loss. He surrendered three runs on two hits with one strikeout and three walks. Birck was the only batter Jackson Voss faced.
Bax had three of Jefferson City's five hits, going 3-for-3 with three singles and one RBI.
In the championship game Sunday night, the Bulldogs defeated the Missouri Redhawks 11-3.
The Post 5 Juniors (10-3) will host a doubleheader at 6 p.m. Wednesday against the Phenom at the American Legion Post 5 Sports Complex.