Knoxville Baseball has come back in the seventh inning before, but Monday night’s come from behind walk off 5-4 winner against Newton had a little more juice than the others. Perhaps it’s the timing, with postseason right around the corner.

“They performed. They came back. They did it. I told them there in the huddle this is it, three outs, gotta get two runs to extend the game. We gotta get two base runners and then someone’s gotta come up with some big hits – and they just went out and did that,” Coach Joel Johnson told KNIA/KRLS after the game.

Knoxville trailed 4-2 going into the bottom of the seventh when Kevin Woodhouse drew a lead off walk then scored on a double by Jake Kendall off the left field fence. Kendall went to third on the throw to the plate. After a Newton pitching change, Jared McClung wrapped a sharp single to center to tie the game. McClung then advanced to second base on a wild pitch, and scored when Nolan Wallace hit the next pitch up the middle for the game winner.

Cam Liston (5-2) earned the win in relief of Jake Kendall who went 6 1/3 innings, giving up four runs on ten hits to the Cardinals. Kendall went 4-4 at the plate including the big double in the seventh. Jared McClung and Tony Salato each had a pair of hits for Knoxville, and Kevin Woodhouse extended his hitting streak to an incredible 36 consecutive games.

Although the ending was great, everything didn’t go as planned for Knoxville in the game. In fact, Newton scored all four of their run during the fourth inning, with two outs, without a ball leaving the infield. Three infield singles and two Knoxville throwing errors gave Newton a commanding 4-1 lead at that time.

Coach Johnson also shared his concerns with the performance of his team, “They were frustrated. I’m frustrated. I’m going to go over here and have a little talk about that three that’s up there in the error column. Not only are there three physical errors, plus there are other mental errors that (aren’t) up there on the board. We just can’t do that. I’ve been harping about that for two or three weeks about how in a one and done tournament, you don’t get a mulligan.”

That single elimination tournament starts on Friday night as Knoxville opens up District play hosting former Little Hawkeye Conference rival Norwalk in a game you can hear live on AM 1320 and 95.3 FM KNIA.

Cardinals 000 400 0 – 4 10 1
Knoxville 001 010 3 – 5 12 3

WP – Cam Liston (5-2)
LP – Jordan Travis (4-5)

#5 Knoxville (28-5)
Newton (16-12)