The West Alabama Post 29 juniors team worked overtime to earn a split in a three-team round robin Tuesday night.

The round robin included the American Legion teams from Lamar and Bibb County in addition to the Post 29 home team. The first pitch was thrown at 4 p.m., and by the time West Alabama had defeated Lamar 13-9, watched the two visitors play, and lost 8-1 to Bibb County, the clock was not far off from midnight.

Post 29 coach Jonathan Lynsey said that the late hours might have played a role in his team’s loss to Bibb County, as a tight 2-1 game suddenly became an 8-1 rout after a six-run Bibb County sixth inning.

“I guess we got kind of tired out there,” Lynsey says, “and the six-run inning put us away.”

Lynsey added that the team is showing progress, but needs to do a better job of playing “the whole seven innings.”

“If we’d put the second half of the first game with the first half of the second game,” he said, “we’d be a very good ball team. It’s just a couple of innings.”

Lynsey also admitted that “coaching errors” at third base had hurt his team’s chances. But there were several positives to come out of the Bibb loss, including the play of starting pitcher Kyle Thrasher, who allowed only 4 hits through the first 5 innings. Josh Dunn went 2-2 with a double and single.

And, of course, there were plenty of positives from the 13-9 victory over Lamar. The biggest was an eight-run third inning in which West Alabama batted around, with Brett Vick both leading off the inning with a single and capping off the rally with a two-out double. In-between Vick’s hits were singles by Chase Felts and Phillip Farmer, a double to right by Cameron Brister, and several walks from the Lamar pitcher. When the dust had settled, West Alabama had turned a 7-2 deficit into a 10-7 lead.

West Alabama padded the lead in the fifth with a three-run outburst, all of it coming with two away. Farmer singled, Vick drew a walk, Thrasher singled, Felts drew a walk, and a little help from Lamar in the form of an error and wild pitch brought Farmer, Vick, and Thrasher across the plate.

The 13-7 lead was safe in the hands of Post 29 pitcher Dustin Edwards, who held Lamar scoreless in the fourth and fifth and snuffed out a last-gasp rally in the sixth after allowing a pair of runs.

The split puts Post 29’s juniors at 8-6 on the season. A weekend double-header with Trussville has been cancelled, and the available West Alabama juniors will join the roster of the senior team for their big weekend tournament at the SportPlex.