East County needs back-to-back wins to advance

East County has its backs to the wall after falling to Tigard 6-5 to open a second round series in the AAA American Legion playoffs Wednesday night.

The Knights face a must-win game at 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Tigard High School to force a decisive Game 3 in Sandy on Friday night.

The Tigers jumped out quickly on a three-run homer by Gunner Cederberg in the first inning and extended to a 6-1 lead midway through the game. East County cut into the margin in the sixth inning, scoring twice on Tigard errors and pulling to within a single run after Will DeBiccari knocked a sacrifice fly into center field.

But the Knights stalled out down the stretch, leaving the tying run at third base three straight times before failing to get a hit in the ninth inning.

Additional coverage of the best-of-three series will appear in Saturday's edition of the Gresham Outlook.