Post 23's Jacob West reaches for home plate during Shelbyville's contest versus Gallatin. (Photo by Alex Morgan) [Click to enlarge]

NEWBERN -- After sweeping through the first three days of the Junior American Legion State Tournament, Shelbyville Post 23 hit their first bump in the road against Gallatin on Sunday. Shelbyville dropped the semifinal matchup 12-5, but still advanced to the finals of the tournament due to only suffering one loss thus far.

"We just didn't hit the ball like we should have today, and we left way too many runners on base," Post 23 coach Brad Frasier said.

Gallatin sent tough right-hander Nathan Haynes to the mound on Sunday and the hard-throwing lefty threw a complete game despite the summer heat barring down for the entire seven innings.

Gallatin took a 5-1 advantage going into the fourth inning when Shelbyville rallied and brought the deficit to just 5-4. Haynes struggled to find his command on the mound and recorded three wild pitches in the inning which allowed three runs to cross the plate in the frame.

Post 23 took the momentum going into the fifth inning, but Haynes quickly took it back by delivering a leadoff triple to the left-center field gap. Gallatin scored four runs in the frame on four hits and a sacrifice fly.

In the top half of the sixth inning, Shelbyville scored their final run of the ballgame on an RBI single by Taylor Montgomery that plated Chase Dial, who led off the inning with a double up the middle.

Gallatin closed the door on Shelbyville in the bottom half of the sixth, scoring three more runs off Shelbyville starter Jacob West, who struggled to find the strike zone in the frame while giving up two hits and hitting a batter.