By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
The first four innings flew by in just over an hour.
How could Savannah and Smithville have known, at that point, that they'd be in for a four-hour, 14-inning marathon to settle the Pony Express Tournament championship?
"I've coached over 500 games," Savannah head coach Erich Bodenhausen said. "That was the longest game I've ever coached. It was a lot of fun. Especially to be victorious there. I felt like both teams had chances to win it, and it just didn't happen until the end there."
Savannah (13-7) would at last prevail, scoring five runs in the top of the 14th inning to break the tie and beat the Warriors 12-7 at Phil Welch Stadium in St. Joseph Wednesday.
The deadlock was broken with junior Zayden Snapp's three-run RBI double to deep left with bases loaded in the top of the 14th.
"Man, I think everyone on the team was waiting for it," Snapp grinned. "I don't know, it just felt really good to break (the tie) and finally take the lead."
On the hill, junior Wyatt Jackson held Smithville scoreless for five innings of relief, taking over with two on and nobody out in the top of the 10th.
"I was in a different mode that game," Jackson shared. "When I came in, I was locked and...I don't know it was a different level of...it was crazy, it was nuts, it was so fun and I'm so glad we came out with a win. It was just so much fun."
After getting down 1-0 in the first, Savannah took a 2-1 lead in the top of the fifth - only for Smithville to reclaim the lead at 4-2 in the bottom of that inning.
That, as you might have guessed, was just the tip of the iceberg. Savannah scored three runs in the top of the sixth to once again take the lead at 5-4.
Smithville tied the game in the bottom of the frame, and both teams went down in order in the seventh to send it to extras.
The Savages regained the lead at 7-5 in the top of the ninth, scoring two runs on two errors and an RBI single from senior Ethan Dudeck.
It seemed like Savannah would end it there, as Smithville had two on with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
Smithville's Andrew Hedgecorth was faced with a 1-2 count before he launched a two-run RBI double to deep left field to knot the game at 7-7.
Both teams then slogged through four scoreless innings of missed opportunities before Snapp broke the dam in the top of the 14th.
Snapp stole home, and Sutton Snipes laced an RBI single to left in the 14th as well to give the Savages some insurance.
Jackson had four strikeouts in his five innings of relief, allowing just one hit in that time. He also had two hits and two runs scored on offense.
Sophomore Landon Noland had a team-best four hits in the win. While the Savages stranded 16 baserunners, they wound up with 18 total hits.
"We knew we could beat them," Jackson said of Smithville, who beat Savannah 10-5 just six days prior. "We hadn't been playing to the best of our abilities and that game we were firing on all cylinders. After this, we're going to be a team and we're going to be scary. This game brought us confidence, it brought us together and it's going to be a fun season."
Wednesday's game was certainly memorable and extraordinary for all involved, as both teams beat the impending thunderstorms, and also delayed Benton and Chillicothe's third place game by about 2.5 hours.
Still, it goes down as a win for Savannah - a team that has won the Pony Express Tournament in back-to-back seasons, and a team that's now won four of its last five games in 2023.
"These guys have great ability," coach Bodenhausen said. "They can definitely go far if we can put it together and play well in all three phases, which I felt like we did that tonight. Our defense was solid, our pitching was good, and offensively, our offense has really been good all year long."
Savannah will head to Gower on Monday to face East Buchanan.
You can follow Tommy on Twitter @TommyKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.