The Pleasantville baseball team defeated West Lyon at Merchants Park in Carroll Tuesday night in the Class 2A State Quarterfinals heard live on 95.3 KNIA.

Brayden Kennedy got the start on the mound for the Trojans and pitched 5 ⅓ innings only giving up three hits and one earned run. Pleasantville’s offense struck first in the contest after a two run home run by JJ Phillips in the third inning to take a 2-0 lead. West Lyon scored one in the top of the fifth but the Trojans answered back in the bottom of the frame after Logan Roff scored on a throwing error. West Lyon then scored two runs in the top of the sixth after a hit by pitch, single, and walk as the Wildcats tied the game at three a piece. In the bottom of the sixth, Pleasantville scored two runs as Will Mesecher came home on an error and Braylon Bingham scored Owen Rule on a sacrifice fly to take a 5-3 lead.

Braylon Bingham was handed the ball to get the final out of the sixth inning and then was tasked with getting three outs in the seventh to close the game out. In the top of the seventh the Wildcats had three straight runners reach on a single, error, and walk and then scored a run on a bunt. With one out West Lyon had runners on second and third and Bingham picked up back to back strikeouts to seal the win and defeat the Wildcats 5-4 to advance to the state semifinals. Head Coach Luke Adreon says his team was resilient in the win and played through situations they haven’t been in this season against a talented West Lyon squad,

“That’s a team that won the state championship in football and I think they were runners up in basketball so we knew coming in here that they were going to be a team that just competed to the end and they weren’t going to just let us go out and do our thing without battling back. We haven’t had to do something like that, we’ve had to battle back a few times but not multiple times in a pressure spot like that so hopefully we can learn from that and we can use that experience going forward.”

The Trojans improve to 31-1 on the season and will now take on Chariton Thursday night in the state semifinals which can also be heard live on 95.3 KNIA.