Down to their last out and trailing by one, Baraboo’s Jake Labeots tied the game on a straight steal of home plate, and by doing so, he helped the Junior Bandits steal a victory from Nekoosa with a 3-2 triumph in eight innings at Mary Rountree Field on Tuesday night.

Baraboo had little success against Nekoosa starting pitcher Dalton Books through six innings and entered the final frame trailing 2-0. But the Junior Bandits started to show some life with one out in the seventh, when Dakota Daniels was hit by a pitch and Labeots doubled to put guys on second and third.

A groundout by Tyler Fish scored Daniels to make it a 2-1 game, but also moved Labeots to third. Then, with Books in the windup, Labeots got a great jump and bolted for home, where he was able to slide under the tag to tie the game at 2.

It looked like the Junior Bandits might win it in the seventh, when Anthony Hoeschelle tripled down the leftfield line, but Books got out of the jam withg a strikeout to end the inning.

In the eighth inning, Josh Statz, who had a pair of infield singles earlier in the game, led off with a triple to the gap in left-center. Books looked like he might get out trouble when he retired the next two batters on ground balls, but Daniels delivered the game-winner with a base hit to center.

Baraboo coach Andy Neuman said his team struggled to find any holes in the early going, after watching the Junior Bandits make nine flyball outs through the first six innings of action.

"We put the ball in play, but they weren’t quite falling there in the first six innings," Neuman said. "Finally we hit the ball hard there towards the last couple innings and Josh came up with a big hit there in the eighth and then Dakota at the end there hit the ball hard. Otherwise, we were just kind of popping them up."

Baraboo was in position to get the win thanks to some great pitching from the duo of David McDonald and Labeots. McDonald gave up just two runs on two hits in four innings before handing the ball over to Labeots. From there, Labeots held Nekoosa scoreless on two hits the rest of the way.

"They kept the ball down and we made the plays on defense," Neuman said. "All around, we made the plays on defense and the pitchers pitched good."