DECATUR – The Clinton Gold 12A team concluded their season Saturday with a fourth place finish at the ASA State Tournament in Decatur.

Gold 5, Mattoon Pride 4

In a game that head coach Mike Nunnery said the Gold would near to play a perfect game in order to win, the Gold came through. Clinton tallied one in the second, one in the third, two in the fifth and the winning run in the sixth. Kennedy Carson scored the winning tally on a passed ball in the eighth inning.

Haley Ginger got the win on the mound, striking out four.

“Mattoon has been a state contending team for a few years so it was great to beat them,” Nunnery said.

Gold 9

Bloom. Lightning 4

Ashley Toohill, Shalyn Houston and Haley Ginger each had two runs for the Gold. Clinton had two in the first, three in the second and four in the fourth.

“It was important to win our second game of the tournament,” Nunnery said. “That guaranteed that we would have at least two more games.”

Shalyn Houston was the winning pitcher, striking out four.

S. Express 11, Gold 2

Clinton came back the next day (July 10) and suffered an 11-2 loss to the S. Express, a team from Marion featuring some of the best players from Southern Illinois and Kentucky.

Houston and Megan Tool each had a run, but the Express had six in the fourth inning alone. Clinton was limited to four hits in the contest.

The Express went on to take second place in the tournament.

Gold 6

Starved Rock Bandits 5

An eventful eighth inning guaranteed Clinton would finish among the top four in the tournament.

Tied at three, Starved Rock opened up the eighth scoring twice, but Clinton responded with three to win in walk-off fashion.

Down by two with the bases loaded, Rachel Borland came to the plate and delivered one of the biggest hits of the year for the Gold, a three-run single that scored Michaela Elliot, Alexis Obermeyer and Haley Ginger.

Shalyn Houston had five strikeouts to help assure Clinton would place.

Mattoon Pride 12

Gold 9

The Gold were unable to secure a spot in the top three, falling to the Pride, who would eventually take third.

The Gold were seemingly looking at the end of their season in the seventh inning, but scored twice to tie the game and send it into international tiebreaker. Peyton Bieber had an RBI double and a run in the inning.

Clinton took the lead with two runs in the eighth, but Mattoon responded with five in the bottom half of the inning.

Ginger and Elliott each drove in a pair for Clinton.

In a tournament that saw the Gold defense play much better than the weeks before, the Pride game was the exception. 5-6 errors hurt Clinton’s chances in such a close game.

“You can’t have that many errors when playing a team of that caliber,” Nunnery said, referring to Mattoon.

“We scored four runs against their best pitcher and I think we could have won. Ginger pitched real well, as she did all weekend.”

Nunnery was happy to see the team play their best at the most important time of the summer season.

“The kids peaked,” he said. “We had two really good games, where we didn’t commit too many errors at all.

“It’s pretty tremendous of these kids in how they showed up with lots of effort and determination.”

All members of the 12A summer team are eligible to play for the Clinton Junior High team that will begin the season in less than a month. They will also have a pair of players from the 14 and under Gold team.