Indians Threaten Late, No. 21 Lake Land Holds On in 10 Innings

FULTON, Miss. - The walk-off was sitting right there for ICC. The Indians put the winning run on third with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, but Lake Land's shortstop turned a ground ball into the last out and sent the game to extras. One inning later, No. 21 Lake Land escaped with an 11-10 win in 10 innings.

Jack Cummings drove in two with a single in the second, a passed ball brought home another, and the Indians were out front 3-0. They kept stacking small wins in the third with sacrifice flies from Houston Green and Tyler Pickens that pushed the lead to 5-0, then Madden Butler made it louder in the fourth with a two-run homer to right.

Lake Land turned the night on one inning. The Lakers erupted for eight runs on five hits in the top of the sixth to flip a comfortable ICC lead into a 9-7 deficit. The biggest swing in the frame was a two-run single, and suddenly the Indians were playing catch-up in a game they had been controlling.

The Indians tied it in the bottom of the eighth with a sacrifice fly from Williams and an RBI single from Butler, setting up the ninth for a finish that was right there.

In the 10th, the Lakers landed first. A run-scoring triple broke the tie, then an RBI single tacked on another to make it 11-9. ICC answered with one last swing when Williams homered to right in the bottom of the 10th to cut it to 11-10, but the Indians could not find the final hit to complete the rally.

The tough part was the math. ICC out-hit Lake Land 14-8 and still came up a run short. Williams, Brody Thompson, Cummings, Cannon Graham, Butler, and Jacob Pearl each had two hits. Butler went 2-for-5 and led ICC with three RBIs, powering the early lead and helping pull the game even late.