Jeff Farion had tossed 6 shutout innings for the Bloomington Stix against J&B Painting, protecting a slim 1-0 margin. The string of scoreless innings was spoiled when J&B’s Tyler Whynot led off the bottom of the 7th inning with a solo homer to tie the game and send it into extra innings.
Both starters gave way to relievers, Pat Burns of J&B to Tony Mancha, and Jeff Farion to young Ethan Johnston.
The Stix did not score in the top of the 8th.
Blake Hunter led off the bottom of the 8th with a single, advanced to second on a walk, then to third when the Stix issued an intentional pass to load the basees.
J&B’s Jesse Palacio delivered the game winner, lifting a sacrifice fly to center, deep enough to enable Blake Hunter to tag and score the winning run.
J&B will now face last year’s runner-up, the Toronto Gators on Tuesday night, at 8PM CDT, 6PM on the west coast, in a winner’s bracket quarterfinal.
J&B starter Patrick Burns surrendered only 3 hits in 7 innings while striking out 11, while Bloomington starter Jeff Farion scattered 6 hits over his 7 innings, striking out 8.