Semoball

Charleston Fighting Squirrels baseball rolls to second straight regional title and secures World Series berth

Charleston Fighting Squirrels players bump gloves before the start of the Senior Babe Ruth state championship in Charleston, Missouri, on July 8. The team won its second straight Midwest Plains Regional title Monday.
BEN MATTHEWS

The Charleston Fighting Squirrels are headed back to the Senior Babe Ruth World Series.

The Squirrels continued their dominance of the Midwest Plains Regional on Monday in Bismarck, North Dakota, capturing their second straight regional championship.

Charleston beat Williston, North Dakota, 9-3 in a semifinal before cruising to an 11-1 win over Scott County, Iowa, in the final.

Last year, the Squirrels advanced to the semifinals of the World Series before losing 1-0 to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Some of those players returned this summer and now have another chance at the elusive World Series title, which would be the first in program history.

This will be Charleston's fifth trip to the World Series. The tournament starts Aug. 4 in Jamestown, New York.

After going 3-0 in pool play, the Squirrels jumped on top early in the semifinal Monday, scoring a run in the bottom of the first. They added four more in the third to break the game open.

Charleston added a run in the fourth for a 5-0 lead before Williston responded with three runs in the fifth. The Squirrels simply tacked on another run in the bottom of the frame and two more in the sixth.

Drew Reischman led the offense, going 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored. In the leadoff spot, Cole Nichols was 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI.

In the championship, Charleston faced Scott County for the second time in three days. After beating the Iowa team 7-0 on Saturday, Charleston upped the run differential in the final.

For the five-game tournament, the Squirrels out-scored its opponents 53-7.

Championship game stats were not available, and information for box scores was not provided for either game.

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