Blue Sox rally to win in 11th inning at American Legion regional

This summer might just belong to the Southern Nevada Blue Sox. Friday night’s American Legion west regional baseball game may have proved that.

The Blue Sox overcame a pair of three-run deficits and staged a ninth-inning rally to tie it and eventually win 7-6 over St. George (Utah) on a walk-off double by David Hudleson in the 11th inning.

Garrett Giles, who scored a team-high three times, started the 11th with a single, then advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Jerry Smith, who tied the game in the ninth on a one-out single.

Then Hudleson came to the plate and roped it down the right-field line to improve the Blue Sox to 3-0 in the tournament. They are two wins away from advancing to the American Legion World Series in Shelby, North Carolina, which begins Thursday. The regional runs through Sunday.

The Blue Sox played the first two games of the tournament like they may never lose again. A 30-5 whomping of Grand Junction (Colorado) Wednesday preceded a 9-1 victory over Chino (California) the next day.

They came back to Earth a tad Friday, and it started with a sloppy first inning. Two errors extended the inning and St. George capitalized with a homer. But the Blue Sox battled back with two runs in the bottom half, and tied it in the fourth.

St. George put up another trio in the sixth to take a 6-3 lead. Once again the Blue Sox answered, scoring two in the eighth and plating the tying run on Smith’s single with one out after a pair of walks to start the inning.

The Blue Sox are scheduled to play League City (Texas) at 6 p.m. on Saturday. League City (2-1) won its game over Tucson (Arizona) 11-9 on Friday, and the winner will advance to the championship round Sunday.

Contact Justin Emerson at jemerson@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2944. Follow @J15Emerson on Twitter.