It will be a Sweetwater County final as Green River and Rock Springs will play for the south district title; More importantly, both teams are heading to state

It will be a Sweetwater County final as Green River and Rock Springs will play for the south district title; More importantly, both teams are heading to state

ROCK SPRINGS – It will be a Sweetwater County final in the south district American Legion Baseball Tournament as Rock Springs and Green River will play in Saturday’s championship game at 7 p.m. More importantly, both teams will also be going to Laramie next weekend to play in the State Tournament.

After opening the tournament with an upset over the top team in the southeast Torrington, Archie Hay Post 24 faced a familiar foe in Evanston Friday night. Rock Springs sent Nick Blume to the mound with a state berth on the line.

The Rock Springs offense struck quickly as Koltin Legerski drove in the first run of the game in the top of the first on a RBI double. Post 24 took advantage of Evanston errors as both Holden Cain and Tristan Stassinos crossed the plate to put Rock Springs up 3-0 in the top of the first.

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Evanston loaded the bases in the bottom half of the first but Blume was able to pitch out of the jam.

Archie Hay Post 24 added a run in the third inning as Stassinos drove in Legerski on a RBI single. During the year, errors have hurt Rock Springs but all tournament, the defense has been solid. It showed in the bottom of the third as Rock Springs made three nice plays on three Evanston ground balls.

In the bottom of the fourth, Evanston again had an opportunity to break into the scoring column with runners on first and third. Again, Blume was able to pitch out of it unharmed.

Rock Springs added insurance runs in the top of the fifth as Blume got it started with a lead off triple. Riley Tolar drove Blume in and later scored on an Evanston error. Stassinos came up big again at the plate as he was able to drive in Cain later in the inning as Archie Hay Post 24 took a 6-0 lead.

On the mound, Blume put it in cruise taking care of Evanston until the bottom of the eighth. Evanston was finally able to get to Blume but only for one run as Ryne Grossnickle showed off his arm in right field. Grossnickle hit the cutoff man Blume who was able to get the ball to Mortensen who got one out at the plate. Mortensen then had the presence of mind to see the runner rounding first and heading to second on the throw in. Mortensen gunned the ball down to second to end the inning on the double play.

Blume was able to finish out the night for the complete game win throwing over 130 pitches in the game. Blume finished with 16 strikeouts for Rock Springs.

With the win, Archie Hay Post 24 will face off against the Green River Knights at 7 p.m. in the championship game.

The Knights were able to get to the final game with a 9-6 win over Laramie. At one point in the game, Green River was down by a 6-1 score.