For the second time in four days, the Tornadoes couldn’t slam the door on Dresden, wasting a late 5-1 lead in the District 14A championship round.
Dresden rallied in the 9th inning to beat Union City 7-6 at Elam Stadium.
Union City (18-11) will still advance to the regional’s as the runner-up and will play Halls at 4:30 Friday at Dresden in its opener. The Lions will face Bradford in the other game of the double-elimination event, which will conclude on Saturday, with the top two finishers moving on to the sectionals.
The Twisters – behind a strong starting pitching performance from Logan Dawkins – built a four-run cushion in Monday’s fourth meeting of the season with Dresden, which had rallied in dramatic fashion to win a 3-2 classic on Friday.
The Lions scored twice with two outs with the aid of three straight walks in the bottom of the seventh, then mounted the game-winning rally in their last at-bat after a hit batsman and a three-base error with two outs.
Union City outhit Dresden 14-5, with Troy Joslin going 3-for-4 and reaching base five times. Kyler Southerland, Luke Joslin, and Tucker Davis each had two singles, and Skyler Hall drove in a pair of runs for the Tornadoes.
Will Ragsdale scored twice and had an RBI, as did Barrett Cox and Luke Joslin.
The Twisters led the entire game until the bottom of the seventh after scoring two runs in the first. Union City stranded 13 runners, including the bases loaded in the top of the ninth after Luke Joslin raced home on a wild pitch to briefly snap a 5-all deadlock.
Ross Finney, whose two-run single in the seventh forced extra innings, had the game-winning base hit for the Lions to cap a three-RBI day.
Dawkins was plenty good on the hill, giving up just three hits in six innings while fanning five. Ragsdale was saddled with the loss in relief, though both the tying and winning runs charged against him were unearned.
