(From Owensboro) The Owensboro Oilers won their single elimination game hosting the Fulton Railroaders at Apollo High School's Eagle Park for Round 1 of the 2016 OVL playoffs. The Oilers claimed the game 8 to 7, scoring three runs without an out in the bottom of the 9th inning.

Fulton scored first with four runs in the top of the 3rd inning. Andrew Holderman, Jacob Milosch, Alex Phillips, and Chase Slone all crossed the plate on four Railroader hits and a hit batter.

Owensboro answered with five runs to take the lead in the bottom of the 4th inning. Nick Lugo, Seth Woodard, Mitch Wilson, Joe Silva, and Ben Haefner each crossed the plate on three hits, a defensive error, and a hit batter.

The Railroaders pulled even with a run in the top of the 6th inning. With one away, Mason Elliot doubled. He moved to third base on a shallow single by Derek Burns. Zach Bishop brought Elliot in on a RBI ground out. Heading to the bottom of the 6th inning the game was tied.

The score remained deadlocked at 5 to 5 until the top of the 9th inning. With one out, Milosch drew a walk and Phillips hit a two-run home run to extreme right field. The blow gave the Railroaders a 7 to 5 advantage. It also left the Oilers with just three outs to go in 2016.

Haefner led off the bottom of the 9th inning with a walk. Pinch hitter Joe Stucky blooped a single barely into right field. Tanner Kehrer placed a bunt down the third base line with no one covering first base. The bases were loaded. Sam Medina reached on a misplayed slow infield grounder as Haefner scored. Bryce Windham RBI walked, plating Stucky as the tying run. Nick Lugo capped the comeback with a hard ground ball fielded on a dive by the second baseman. The fielder did the only thing he could do in the situation -- he attempted a throw to home plate from his back. Kehrer scored ahead of it, and the Oilers won.

The winning pitcher for Owensboro was reliever Hector Marmal, the pitcher of record when the Oilers took the winning lead.

The losing pitcher for Fulton was Knox Faulkner.

Baseball games measure growth by both how hard it can be to beat you, and the quality of efforts that try to beat you. In both those terms, this game was gigantic.