EL DORADO ? One out away from a run-rule defeat, the Lawrence Mavericks caught fire and won their Class A American Legion state baseball tournament opener, 14-13 in nine innings, Thursday over Newton.

The Mavericks trailed, 11-3, in the fifth inning and were an out away from a shortened loss before they rallied. They tied it with a six-run seventh, then won it on Gabe Jacobson’s RBI single in the ninth.

“We were getting hammered,” Mavericks coach Brad Stoll said. “We played as bad as we could for six innings. It was just brutal. But we just kept plugging away.”

The Mavericks will face Manhattan in the second round at 6 today.

Bandits 6, Hays 5

El Dorado – Hunter Scheib walked with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning as the Lawrence Bandits overcame sloppy defense to rally for victory in their Class A Legion state opener.

Cody Lown threw five solid innings for the Bandits before Hays pushed across four unearned runs in the sixth to take a 5-4 lead.

However, E.J. Swanson came on to stop the bleeding, striking out five in two innings of relief.

He became a winner when the Bandits answered with two runs in the bottom of the seventh.

The Bandits will face El Dorado in the second round today at 8:30 p.m.