Mustangs manufacture five-inning victory over Eagles to reach Class 1A regional title game

LIBERTY, Ill. — Patience, persistence and pitching have put the Mendon Unity baseball team on the verge of both a 20-win season and the program’s first regional title in more than 30 years.

The second-seeded Mustangs took advantage of 10 free bases, broke through to take the lead in the third inning and finished off an 11-1 victory over ninth-seeded Liberty in five innings Wednesday night in the semifinals of the Class 1A Liberty Regional.

Unity (19-5) will face the winner of Thursday’s semifinal between third-seeded Winchester West Central and fifth-seeded Payson Seymour, which is scheduled to be played at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, in Saturday’s regional championship.

Liberty took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when Jarred Owens singled with one out and Devon Funk delivered a two-out triple to right field.

The Mustangs wasted no time in answering. Elijah Parsons led off the bottom of the third with a single and Avery Frese followed with a single. Simon Rabe drove in the tying run with a single to right field, and after Frese scored on a wild pitch, Cody Shaffer doubled to make it 3-1.

Unity’s three-run fourth inning featured an RBI single by Frese, a run-scoring wild pitch and a bases-loaded walk to Skylor Goudschaal. The five-run fifth inning ended with Carter Reeves driving an RBI double to left field.

Frese finished 3 for 4 with three runs scored and two RBIs, while Shaffer went 2 for 4 with two RBIs. The Mustangs drew eight walks and had two batters hit by pitches. Shaffer allowed one run and four hits over four innings with seven strikeouts.

Levi Hoener allowed six hits and three earned runs with two strikeouts over 3 ⅔ innings for Liberty (10-17).