Matt Vines

LOGANSPORT – Logansport baseball’s postseason future looked bleak after surrendering seven first-inning runs to LaSalle, but the good thing about being the home team is that there is always the bottom half of innings.

The No. 12 seed Tigers answered with seven first-inning runs of their own and outlasted No. 21 LaSalle in a 14-11 win.

Logansport (13-13) advances to the second round to face No. 5 seed Lakeside (15-14) today at 5 p.m.
Lakeside earned a first-round bye after traversing a difficult district and non-district schedule.

Logansport still has plenty of faces that propelled the Tigers to a semifinals run this past season, while Lakeside took an early bow in the second round as a No. 5 seed.

Logansport 14, LaSalle 11

Three straight singles started the scoring for LaSalle, who added runs on a bases-loaded walk and an error as they made the most of their five singles and two walks to generate seven runs in the first inning.
Logansport recorded just three hits with its five walks in its seven-run inning.

Nathan Wheless (3-for-4, three RBIs) drove in two runs with a single while Stevie Holloway and Levi Forrest drew bases-loaded walks. Keaton Cason (2-for-4, four RBIs) cleared the bases with a three-RBI triple to tie the score 7-7.

But Logansport didn’t take its first lead until a four-run sixth inning.

Wheless tied the game at 11 with an RBI single before an error, Hunter Martin RBI and a wild pitch accounted for Logansport’s other three runs and the 14-11 edge.

Forrest picked up the win in relief, navigating through four runs on eight hits and two walks in 5 1/3 innings. Just one of those hits came in the final two innings.

The playoff win against its district foe came after dominating LaSalle 11-1 and 15-2 in the regular season series.