For the fourth and fifth consecutive games, the Redlegs had to do battle with a team ranked in the MVABL’s "Who’s Hot" list. This time it was a double header against the top ranked Springfield Indians.

The Redlegs ran hard throwing Eric Williams out on the mound for game 1 to face 2-0 Matt Spradlin. The Indians jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the 2nd inning when Matt Buynack hit a bases loaded bullet to the right field fence to score two followed by a 2 run single from Joe Parsley to make it 4-0. The Redlegs answered in the top of the 3rd when Matt Mattice belted one over the right field wall for his first career MVABL homerun. Jake Robinson and Brandon Howard both drew walks before Steve Benthal pulled one through the hole into left for an RBI single. The Indians ace started having trouble finding the strike zone with the rain slick ball, walking 5 and hitting a batter to bring in 5 more runs before getting pulled for a reliever. Robinson greeted the new pitcher with his first career grand slam over the left-center field wall to make it a 10 run inning for the Redlegs.

The Indians got two back in each of the next two innings with RBI singles from Phil Beach and Buynack in the 3rd and a two run single by Matt Coleman in the 4th to make it 10-8.

Kyle Slone and Mattice led the 5th off with singles and Robinson worked a walk to load the bases for Howard who drove in two more with a single. Two more walks forced in another run before Campbell stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and no one out and produced what appeared to be a sacrifice fly to score Howard. The Indians appealed and the home plate umpire felt Howard left to bag too early and called him out taking a run off the board and the Redlegs advantage down to 13-8.

Coleman added a two run double in the 6th for the Indians to shave the lead down to 3 but the Redlegs got those runs back in the top of the 7th with RBIs from Benthal and Gregg Lebouef. The score stood at 15-10 going into the home half of the 7th. Williams came out to try to finish what he started and got a ground out to start the inning. He then ran out of gas allowing the next three to reach with a double and a pair of walks. With the tying run on deck, Matt Redman came on to make his MVABL debut on the mound getting a strike out and a pop out to record his first career save.


As wild as game 1 was, game 2 turned out to be a pitcher’s duel between the Redlegs’ Kevin Campbell and the Indians’ Aaron Lawson.

After the Indians again jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, Steve Benthal singled in the bottom of the 2nd, advanced to second on a groundout and scored when he stole 3rd and the throw went into left field. Joey Cherry drove in Phil Beach and Joe Parsley with a 2 run single in the 4th to give the Indians a 3-1 lead.

Lawson was making that lead hold up keeping the Redlegs off balance through the first 5 innings. They finally got to him in the 6th when Jake Robinson singled and Benthal doubled into the right center field gap putting the tying runs in scoring position. Jared Bradley followed that with a seeing-eye single into center field to tie the game at 3.

Campbell then went into lock down mode retiring 9 of the final 10 batters he faced. His only blemish was when he hit Matt Coleman and subsequently picked off the runner to end the 6th inning. He came back out in the 7th and struck out the side to give his offense one more chance to win the game.

Lawson started the bottom of the 7th by giving up a single to Eric Williams. Matt Mattice fell behind in the count 1-2 before fouling of several pitches and working a walk to put the winning run at second base. That was it for Lawson who was relieved by Matt Coleman. After a wild pitch advanced the winning run to third with nobody out, the Indians elected to put Robinson on intentionally to load the bases and bring the infield in for Brandon Howard. Howard delivered the game winner with a shot over the left fielders head to score Williams and give the Redlegs a 4-3 walk-off win.

With the sweep, the Redlegs improve to 4-1 and jump out to a half game lead over the 3-1 Slammers in the Buckeye Division. They hope to extend their winning streak to 4 in a row next week against the Tigers at AIA.