The tone in a 12-8 win last week by American Legion Post 162 over Crestwood Post 777 was set by Lemay’s Tom Case with a first-inning home run.

Crestwood hit the ball hard against Lemay starting pitcher Joel Murphy, but could only plate two runs before he was replaced in the seventh inning. Lemay held a 12-2 lead through six innings in the July 12 game before scoring two off Murphy in the seventh to avoid an early end to the game by the 10-run rule. Murphy struck out four and walked one.

“They’re a good ball club,” Lemay head coach Brian Daniels said of Crestwood. “They’ve held a lot of good teams to low runs … We have to stay on top of a team. We can’t just go one inning and put up five or six runs. We need to keep doing that, bury the team … because if you let a good ball club like we played today stick around, they will come around …”

Crestwood’s hopes were buoyed after a three-run rally in the eighth sparked by the hitting of Nick Higgs, who went 4-4, including a double and four runs scored.

Higgs was Crestwood’s third pitcher on the evening. He pitched a flawless eighth and ninth inning, but late heroics couldn’t counter Lemay’s early lead.

After Lemay right fielder Josh Pell was hit by a pitch in the second inning, the flood gates opened.

Catcher Nick Clements, who went 3-5, singled to right to set the table for a two-run double by left fielder Wes Henderson.

Henderson later scored on a single up the middle by second baseman Nathan Mize.

Despite the loss, Crestwood head coach Mason Horne praised his team’s efforts.

“We just don’t quit. That’s why I love the kids,” he said. “They really fight and claw their way back. That’s all you can ask as a coach — that they don’t stop playing, that they’re competitive for all nine innings and we do that.”