CARTERVILLE, Ill. -- Wabash Valley held on for a 7-6 victory over John A. Logan on Thursday in the first game of a Great Rivers Athletic Conference baseball series here.
Saturday, the set will conclude with a 12-noon doubleheader at Fournier Field in Mt. Carmel.
The 9th-ranked Warriors improved to 22-7 on the season, and 7-0 in GRAC play with their fourth straight win. Logan fell to 17-10 and 3-3 with the loss.
Aaron Biddle's team led 5-0 at one point but called on closer Luke Leverton to get the final out in the ninth after the Vols had scored two runs to pull to within 7-6 with the game-tying run on base.
Leverton got a called third strike to end the game and preserve the win.
WVC jumped ahead in this one, scoring once in the top of the first against Logan starting pitcher Daniel Pestka. Daniel Contreras lined a single that scored Nicklas Williams, and it was 1-0.
In the fourth inning, the Warriors scored four more times to make it 5-0. Jon Legrande hit his first home run of the season, a 3-run shot to make it 5-0.
Michael Lareau had scored earlier in the frame when Richard Bonomolo reached on an infield error.
Logan then began to chip away at Warrior starter Jacob Frost, scoring two runs in both the fourth and fifth to make it 5-4.
Frost left after seven innings, the narrow lead still intact. The sophomore lefthander struck out nine and walked only one, improving to 5-1 with the win.
Reliever Louis Phillipe Langren came on to work the eighth, but by then the Warriors had extended the lead to 7-4. Legrande completed his RBI haul at four with a base hit. That followed an RBI single by Bonomolo.
Sam Mettert retired the first two Vols in the ninth, but then they scored twice and had runners on second and third when Leverton was hailed to put out the fire.
Legrande and Williams both had two-hit days at the plate.
There were five errors in the game, three by the Vols, two by the Warriors.