After dropping a 7-6 decision to Ballwin last Saturday in the first round of the American Legion District 10 tournament, the Oakville varsity team bounced back with a 2-1 win over Kirkwood on Sunday.

The win for Oakville (24-20, 5-7 District 10 South) essentially keeps the team alive in the double-elimination format tournament.

“I thought that offensively we squandered a couple of opportunities,” Oakville head coach Matt Boyer told the Call. “But we beat Kirkwood today, so we live to play another day.”

Against Kirkwood, Oakville starting pitcher Jake Morgan threw a complete game of nine innings in which he gave up one run on three hits. Morgan threw just 98 pitches as he walked two and retired two via strikeout.

“He (Morgan) pitched a good game against Brentwood on Sunday, and we had one bad inning,” Boyer said. “He basically had the (Kirkwood) game under control.”

Oakville and Kirkwood were in a 1-1 tie going into the top of the ninth before Adam Boyer was hit by a pitch and then advanced to second on a balk.

Boyer was then driven in for the game-winning run on a triple by Brian Roustio.

“Brian’s been having some good at-bat’s lately,” Boyer said. “To come up with a key hit like that was big.”

Roustio finished the afternoon with a 2-2 performance that included one bunt, two runs batted in and a sacrifice bunt.

Boyer also noted that catcher Clayton Camp was a key contributor to the team’s win over Kirkwood.

Boyer believes that the tandem of Camp and Morgan was one of the keys to Sunday’s winning formula.

“A pitcher is sometime only as good as his catcher,” Boyer said. “He worked really hard behind the plate and called a really good game with Jake on the mound.”

Up next for Oakville is a Monday night meeting with Florissant that took place after the Call went to press.

Oakville slapped Florissant around for a 13-4 win on June 7 when starting pitcher Brian Randolph gave up four runs on eight hits in seven innings pitched.

“We beat them 13-4 earlier in the year,” Boyer said. “They’re in the same scenario as we are. We’re running low on pitching, and the weather’s hot. We’ve got to do a good job defensively and hit the ball well if we want to win.”