With a defensive struggle locked in a tie, Coach Kenny Dildine had pulled out all the stops to no avail.A risky decision to send a player scrambling home in the sixth inning hadn’t paid off.“We want to take that chance every time,” said Dildine. “I trust the kids I’ve got, but they just made a great defensive play.”Dildine wasn’t regretting the move, but he was certainly hoping his Warrenton Post 122 Junior Legion team would find a way to escape victorious.Thankfully, St. Peters presented a gift.After taking a one-run lead in the fifth, it granted Warrenton three walks in the bottom of the sixth. Post 122 took charge, grabbing a 3-2 win.Dildine had given his team one request prior to the game, and it followed through.“I told the boys at the beginning of the game that if we play clean ball and don’t make errors, we’re going to win this game,” said Dildine.His premonition came to fruition, but Dildine would have preferred some fire at the plate from his team as well. Without it, Post 122 found itself in a stressful finishing situation.Ryan Adams started on the mound for Warrenton, allowing just one runner across home through five innings. Even the four walks he allowed weren’t detrimental, as Post 122 kept its fielding crisp.But Warrenton was equally as stagnant as its opponent at the plate, going three-up, three-down during three of the first four innings.Post 122 recorded three hits in the first five innings, with two of them yielding a run. Adams singled in the second inning off a hit by Devon Odem.Not until St. Peters’ pitching started to get shaky in the sixth inning did Warrenton finally pounce on its opportunity.“I told the kids to make him throw strikes so we could wear him out,” said Dildine. “After that, we started rattling him.”Three straight walks loaded the bases with one out. James Dotson and Shane Emge punched through consecutive singles, scoring Austin Dixon and Brandon Purkable.“We’re going to play aggressive until they shut us down,” said Dildine, of his team’s smart work on the base paths.Warrenton ended with just four hits, but it made the most of the on-base opportunities when granted.“We’ve still got a lot to work on with gaining more confidence at the plate, but these boys are doing a good job of thriving off each other,” said Dildine, who noted it was a considerable improvement over the season opener against Washington.JUNIORS WINDerrick Forsythe Photo.