After suffering their first loss of the State B Tournament held in Lennox last week at the hands of Redfield, the Lennox Post 174 Baseball team battled back and managed to defeat Redfield Post 92 2-0 in the Championship game last Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 6 to win the State Title.
Prior to this State title, the Lennox Legion team captured the state title in 1953 and 1993. In 2015, the Legion split into a senior and junior division. The Lennox Junior team won the state title in 2017 and again in 2018. Many of those same athletes took to the field this past week as members of the Senior team.
Head coach Johnny Mike Kirchner took to facebook to share his thoughts on this year’s team.
“Times weren’t always easy, the scoreboard didn’t always have us on the winning side. But through thick and thin, those boys battled,” he said. “They battle because their parents won’t let them quit, and they would never quit on their own. Good luck finding a team as successful as this group in any town, over any time frame. I was fortunate enough to be riding on this train!”
In the Championship game, Lennox got things going early as Ray Williams singled to start the inning out. Tyson Stoebner singled on a bunt, putting Zach Foss at the plate with no outs. Foss hit a fly ball to the short stop for the first out but Williams had advanced to third on an error by the catcher. Zach Leisinger was out on a fly ball to left field which sent JD Kirchner up to bat. Kirchner hit a single to bring home Williams and also send Stoebner home, giving Lennox an early 2-0 lead.
Thanks to strong pitching by Stoebner and solid defense by the Lennox outfield, Redfield was unable to get a run on the board the entire game, giving Post 174 the 2-0 victory.
As Coach Kirchner pointed out, the title wouldn’t have been possible without the support from the community and volunteers.
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