EUREKA — In a win-or-go-home play-in baseball game between the Eureka Lions and the Ronan Chiefs on Monday, Eureka came out on top 9-5 thanks to a huge seven-run third inning.
With the win, Eureka advances to the state baseball tournament later this week in Missoula.
The Lions got on the board in the bottom of the first as Tristan Butts had a triple followed by an error from Ronan to put Eureka up 1-0 early on.
After strong pitching from both sides, Eureka got hot in the bottom of the third starting with a RBI single from A.J. Truman to bring one Lion home and advance another to third.
Moments later it was Tristan Libby with a groundout RBI to bring in another for the Lions as they began blowing the game open.
Then, to cap off the inning, it was Rowan Burow with an RBI single to bring home the Lions seventh run of the inning and make it 8-0 heading into the fourth.
Ronan came to life in the bottom of the fourth, kick-started with an RBI single from DaVonne Curly following a triple from Fisher Tristan.
The Chiefs rode that momentum and brought in three more off of two hits and four errors from the Lions to cut Eureka’s lead in half and make it 8-4.
From there Eureka tacked on another run at the bottom of the sixth and Ronan added one more at the top of the seventh, and the Lions held on to secure the win.
