CASPER, Wyo.\u00a0\u2014 Veteran leadership goes a long way, especially in the postseason.<\/p>\n
For the Klamath Falls Falcons, the trio of high school graduates on the roster proved to be the difference, as the Basin squad advanced to the championship game of the American Legion Northwest Single-A Regional Tournament, topping the Eugene Ole Athletics 12-6 Sunday afternoon at Mike Lansing Field.<\/p>\n
The Falcons (40-7 overall) will meet the Cache Valley Wolverines from Utah in Monday\u2019s final, with first pitch set for 11 a.m. (PDT) \u2013 live on 104.3 & 960 Sports.<\/p>\n
Klamath Falls jumped to a 6-0 lead in the fourth, but the Ole\u2019s (29-14) tied the score with a five-run fifth. Enter PJ Safford, Ian Meyer and Kollin Tacchini, as the trio willed their club to a win.<\/p>\n
Coming out of the bullpen for the third time in the tournament, Safford got Zak Hermanson to pop out with the go-ahead runner on at second in the fifth and worked around two singles to toss two shutout frames to limit the Lane County club.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to come in and throw strikes and get us in,\u201d Safford said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in this position so many times and knew that our offense would take charge.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the sixth, Harley Hoblit walked, Carson Siems singled and Corbin Hamilton walked to load the bases. Landon Vaughn walked Jacoby Tacchini to force in the go-ahead run and Meyer followed driving in a run with a fielder\u2019s choice \u2013 his fifth of six RBIs on the day. Kollin Tacchini broke the game open with a 2-out 2-run triple and Safford capped the frame with an RBI single.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had some good swings earlier in the game,\u201d Kollin Tacchini said. \u201cI trusted my approach and stayed true to my training and put a good swing on the ball. Once I made contact, I knew it was going clear the bases.\u201d<\/p>\n
Things looked good early for the Falcons, as a three-run third and three-run fourth built a big lead. Meyer had a two-run double and Kollin Tacchini an RBI single in the third inning rally, while in the fourth, back-to-back doubles from Chase Barrett and Hoblit knocked in a run and Meyer added a two-run single.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wind was blowing out to right,\u201d Meyer said about his double. \u201cI changed my approach and took advantage of the wind and got us on the board.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Oregon state champs didn\u2019t quit, breaking through with a Collin Hartman sacrifice fly in the fourth and chasing Klamath starter Corbin Hamilton in the fifth. Coda Skinner made it 6-3 with an RBI single, Hartman lined an RBI double and Nolan Spear tied the score with a two-run double, but Safford entered and snuffed out the rally.<\/p>\n
Siems finished 3 for 3 with three runs scored, with Meyer going 2 for 5 with his career-best six RBIs and Kollin Tacchini going 2 for 5 with three RBIs.<\/p>\n
Up next is a rematch with Cache Valley, whom the Falcons topped 6-1 on Saturday to advance to the championship bracket.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about it this entire season, playing as long as we possibly can,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cTomorrow is it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Safford echoed Meyer.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal all year was to play on the last day of the season. It\u2019s the last time Kollin, Ian and I get to put on a Falcons uniform and play American Legion baseball. We want to bring a banner back to Klamath Falls.\u201d<\/p>\n
NOTES: Siems reached in all five plate appearances, two singles, a double and two hit-by-pitches \u2013 but had to be lifted from the game in the seventh inning after taking a nasty bad hop on a line drive off the face, which led to a 20-minute delay. … It was the seventh meeting between the Falcons and Ole\u2019s over the past two seasons, with Klamath Falls finishing with a 4-3 series win \u2013 including victories Sunday and in last season\u2019s Oregon state title game. … Jacoby Tacchini walked five times, including three that were intentional. … Hartman, Spear and Caden Clark each had two hits for Eugene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CASPER, Wyo.\u00a0\u2014 Veteran leadership goes a long way, especially in the postseason. For the Klamath Falls Falcons, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":774615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[146,5,2323,2314,2317,2313,2413,95501,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,6038,95500,1039],"class_list":["post-774614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-arizona","tag-baseball","tag-baseball-events","tag-baseball-finals","tag-baseball-games","tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","tag-champion-seasons-in-major-league-baseball","tag-klamath-falls","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","tag-major-league-baseball-teams","tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-oregon","tag-safford","tag-world-series"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}