CONNEAUT - American Legion baseball players used the July Fourth holiday to good advantage. Conneaut Post 151 hosted Cochranton, Pa. Post 836.

A victory made the day even better  for the locals.
The two evenly matched teams battled back and forth. Cochranton scored first
In the second inning, Jason Staudt singled, Cody Nageotte was hit by a pitch, Nate K

line reached on an error and Kyle Mudger drove in a second run with a ground ball, 2-0.
Conneaut immediately answered. Matt Flanigan was hit by a pitch, CJ Rice and Cody Martin singled and when Donny Sackett singled and the runners advanced on an error, the locals had taken the lead, 3-2.
Cochranton countered in the third. Jacob Yarnell was safe on an error. Ryan Northcott doubled and Cody Nageotte singled to plate two runs for a 4-3 advantage.
Conneaut responded in the fourth. Joey Borgerding singled, Jereme Smith added a base hit and Jared Walker sent Joey home with a ground ball, 4-4.
Then the pitchers of both teams stiffened and the game went into extra innings.
Matt Flanigan and then  Borgerding took the hill for the locals. Cody Nageotte then shut down Conneaut for the visitors.
The contest continued into the ninth. Cochranton went down in order. Now it was Conneauts' turn.
Ryan Oatman led off the inning by striking out, but a passed ball on strike three enabled Oatman to reach first base. Tyler Cox then walked as Nageotte lost his control. Frank  Clayman was hit by a pitch on ball four and then Jake Simek worked another walk  as Oatman crossed the plate for a walk-off win.
"In the last inning we let him pitch to us, he was pitching slowly, we couldn't get used to that," Conneaut's coach Jim Tupa said.
Tyler Cox started  the game for Conneaut, followed by Flanigan and Borgerding. Borgerding was the victorious hurler. Nageotte took the loss for the visitors.
Randy Staudt, Cochranton coach, praised his team. "I am pretty pleased with the team. We had five starters missing who had to work, and we played some role players  who competed well. Conneaut has some good pitchers."
Cochranton played Kingsville before they came to Conneaut. Kingsville defeated the visitors.
"Tyler Cox made a nice play at third, Christian (Williams ) made a good play at short.I used this game as a bullpen session. Each pitcher got fifty pitches. I was able to rotate all the kids in and out," Tupa added.
Post 151 will be on the road this week, going to Jefferson and Mentor. The next home game will be Sunday, July 15, at 1:00 versus Girard.