Former Minden star Brody Bower and Glenbrook standout Easton Sanders helped the Bossier Phillies advance to the semifinals of the American Legion World Series Sunday in Shelby, N.C.
Bossier defeated Chesapeake, Va., 4-3 Sunday morning.
Bower, a freshman player at BPCC last season, scattered seven hits, struck out eight and walked one in 6 1/3 innings. He was replaced after reaching 105 pitches.
Sanders, who is bound for Louisiana Tech, gave Bossier a 1-0 lead with a sacrifice fly in the first inning.
But that victory didn’t guarantee the Phillies a spot in the semifinals. They had to wait about 11 hours to learn their fate.
Bossier and Chesapeake both stood at 2-1 with the top two teams in the division getting spots in Monday’s semifinals.
Asheville, N.C., was at 1-1 with a game left against winless Greece, N.Y., Sunday night. An Asheville victory over Greece would mean a three-way tie for first.
That game started about two hours later than its scheduled 7 p.m. ET start time.
With the first tiebreaker fewest runs allowed, winless Greece, which had scored only three runs in two games, needed to score just one for the Phillies to advance.
Going into the game, Chesapeake had allowed 10 runs. Bossier and Asheville had allowed 11. So Chesapeake was guaranteed a semifinal spot.
But if Greece failed to score, the next tiebreaker was total runs scored. Bossier had 24 in three games.
Asheville led Greece 11-0 after four innings with the 10-run rule in play after five. They needed two runs to reach 24 and force a coin flip for the runner-up spot and three to advance.
Asheville put runners at first and second with no outs. But Greece didn’t allow another run. Asheville finished with 22 for the tournament.
Bossier advanced after failing just short a year ago.
Bossier faces League City, the Stars pool first-place representative, in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Monday. Chesapeake takes on Portland, Ore., at 3 in the other semifinal,
The winners are scheduled to face off Tuesday at 6 for the title.
Bossier and Chesapeake were tied at 3 after Chesapeake scored two in the top of the fifth.
The Phillies scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the inning.
Kade Bryant reached on an error, stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball. With two outs, Hudson Brignac hit a ground ball. There was an error and Bryant scored.
Bower set Chesapeake down in order in the sixth. Bower got the first out in the seventh and reached 105 pitches . Gavin Brint replaced him and got the next two outs.
The Phillies scored one run in the first. Brignac tripled with one out and scored on the sacrifice fly by Sanders.
Chesapeake tied it in the top of the second on a home run, Bossier scored two in the third.
Jackson Jones hit a ground ball and reached second on an error. Cole Snell then smacked a home run over the left-field fence.
Griffin Sibley had the Phillies’ only other two hits, both singles.