The Lexington Minutemen Baseball Team made a nice comeback but their rally came up a little short, as they fell to the Brookfield Bulldogs 8 to 6 in a first round District Tournament game at Carrollton last Friday.

Brookfield exploded out of the gate in the top of the first inning. as with two men on, Riley Hinckle belted a three run homer to give the Dogs a 3-0 lead. Lexington cut the lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the third, as Braxton Emerson singled and scored on a long double by Trey Perez off of the left fielder’s glove.

Brookfield responded in the top of the fourth, as they loaded the bases, and then Ryder Techau blasted a grand slam home run, and Brookfield led 7–1. Tristyn Hurshman cranked a long leadoff double to begin the bottom of the fourth for Lexington, but he was gunned down trying to take third base on a wild pitch.

Brookfield threatened to break the game open in the top of the sixth, but Lexington came up with an unbelievable defensive play. With one out and two on, Hinckle blasted a long drive to deep center field that looked to be his second home run of the day. However, Lexington center fielder River Howes sprinted at full speed to the center field fence, reached over the fence and caught the ball, while crashing into the wall at what seemed like 100 miles per hour, and turned it into a double play. The umpire ruled that the runner on third had tagged up and scored before the runner was doubled up at second, so Brookfield led 8-1.

Howes’s defensive gem sparked the Minutemen. Jesse Dunkle led off the bottom of the sixth with a single, and after Drew Bollmeyer flied deep to center field, Kale Sender smashed a two out single, and Brookfield then committed a throwing error on Alex Kraft’s ground ball, and Lexington scored 2 runs. Emerson then got his second hit of the game, and Hunter Meyer cracked a two run single, and all of a sudden, it was 8-5, and the Minutemen were back in the game, The never say die Lexington nine rallied again in the bottom of the seventh. Perez was hit by a pitch for the record breaking 13th time this season, then Isaac Huffman reached on a fielders choice. Ayden Harned then lined a single to center driving in a run to cut the deficit to 8-6. Bollmeyer, who had already launched a couple of deep fly balls, then had a good swing, but just got under the ball, and flew out to end the game, Perez started on the mound for Lexington going 4+ innings allowing 5 earned runs on 8 hits with 3 strikeouts and 3 walks. Harned pitched the final 3 innings, giving up 1 earned run on 1 hit, with 3 strikeouts in the fifth, with runners on second and third, and 2 walks. Emerson had 2 hits for Lexington, while Perez and Hurshman each had a double.