Post 2 turns triple play in American Legion Regional

According to baseballchasers.com, theirs is a 0.003 percent chance someone will see a triple play turned in-person.

Whether those odds are accurate or not, the dozens of fans that spent their Saturday afternoon at Terre Haute North’s Don Jenning Field watching the American Legion Regional Tournament consolation bracket semifinal between Clay County Post 2 and West Terre Haute Post 501 could say they had seen a triple play with their own eyes.

In the top of the fifth inning, with Post 2 trailing by a score of 7-1 and runners at second and third with no outs, Clay County relief pitcher Braiden Moore threw a pitch to Jeremiah Johnson, who lifted a shallow fly ball to center field.

Logan Stoelting, racing in from farther back, snagged the ball out of the air and threw a strike towards home where catcher Wyatt Johnson tagged out Chase Hedden trying to score. Unsure of why there was a bunch of commotion coming from Clay County’s dugout, the junior backstop noticed Peyton Powers hustling back to second base. Johnson got his bearings and fired a strike to the bag where second baseman Gavin McMains caught the ball and proceeded to step on second, completing the rarely seen 8-2-4 triple play, and more importantly, getting Post 2 out of a jam.

“I told the boys when they came in, ‘Well, that was just your standard 8-6-4 triple play,’” said Clay County Post manager Nathan Stoelting with a smile. “It was neat to see.”

Clay County had a few other highlight worthy moments during its two-game stay – three games if its forfeited win over Indianapolis Post 257 counts – at the American Legion Regional Tournament, which included a multi-hit game from McMains, a RBI double from Trey Dayhoff and four strong innings out of the bullpen by Moore, but as Stoelting noted, the triple play they turned against West Terre Haute Post 501 was the best of the bunch.

“Someone asked me, ‘Is that the first 8-4-2 triple play you’ve ever seen?’ I was like, ‘That may be the first one in history.’ I don’t know how many times you’ll see an 8-4-2 triple play. That was really cool,” said Stoelting. “That was the highlight of the [tournament]. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a triple play. It was pretty, pretty cool.”