Terre Haute — Don Spall called it the biggest win of his managerial career.

Jake Gorski was elated to lead his team in the waning days of his American Legion career.

A.J. Vazquez was just simply happy to get out of the heat after throwing everything but the kitchen sink over the plate.

Gorski swatted three home runs, and Vazquez pitched masterfully in relief, leading Kokomo Post 6 to a stunning 8-6 victory over host Post 346 in the winners’ bracket round of the Terre Haute senior (19 and under) regional Saturday at Terre Haute North High School, in a game that featured three ties and three lead changes.

Kokomo (24-10) snapped Terre Haute’s 14-game win streak, and dropped Post 346 to 33-5 on the year. The Sixers are one win away from their first regional title since 2001.

“Jake Gorski carried the load,” Spall said. “[The Terre Haute pitching staff] just never learned. We hit four homers [Saturday] — we played long ball.

“This is my biggest win as a manager here at Post 6. Now, we get to the sit in the air conditioning, while the other teams still alive in this tournament have to play baseball all day [Saturday].”

The heat index reached triple digits by game time, but the Sixers seemed unfazed.

Gorski smacked his first bomb in the second at bat of the game, quickly giving his team a 1-0 lead.

Terre Haute struck for a pair of runs in the home half of the second, before Gorski’s second homer of the game, this time a two run shot, put Kokomo back in front 3-2 in the third.

Terre Haute, a team that features five players who are either currently playing or have committed to play NCAA Division I baseball, struck right back with two runs in the home half of the third to take a 4-3 advantage.

Damon Reel’s RBI double off the left field wall gave Post 6 the lead for good at 5-4 in the fifth. Connor Love added an RBI, sacrifice fly in the frame.

Gorski’s third dinger of the contest gave Kokomo a 7-5 lead in the eighth. All three homers were to the left-center power alley. Gorski finished the day 3-for-4 with four RBIs.

“I felt good — I was just getting the pitches, I guess,” a modest Gorski said after the win. “[Saturday] was a good day to hit. This means a lot because this is my last year [with Post 6].”

Terre Haute appeared primed to pounce in the eighth, putting two on with one out on back-to-back singles. Both runners advanced a bag on Dylan Green’s fielding error in right field.

Green made up for the miscue on the next play, making a sliding catch on a liner that tailed away from him before popping to his feet to gun the runner out at second to end the inning.

“Dylan Green has a lot of character, and he’s won a lot of accolades during his athletic career,” Spall said. “He just made a two-run error, and I fully expected Dylan to come back and make a game-saving play. At that time in the game, we’re up two runs, and he makes the play. If that ball gets by him, we’re down a run, or at the very least tied. That was the biggest defensive play of the game for us.”

Clay O’Neal added an insurance run in the ninth with a sacrifice fly.

Josh Copp drew the start and lasted 4 1-3 innings, and wound up getting the victory after allowing five runs on nine hits and fanning four.

Copp danced out of what could’ve been disastrous circumstances for the Sixers early on. Post 346 loaded the bases in each of the first three frames, but all three times left all three runners stranded.

Vazquez entered with one out in the fifth, and worked effectively while nibbling at the strike zone for 4 1-3 innings as well. The only difference, for Vazquez, was that he allowed only one run on three hits in that same span. Vazquez lasted until there was two outs in the ninth, when Joel Hoover came on to record the final out for the save.

“This means a lot — I didn’t feel very well, this heat was tough,” Vazquez said. “I just had to use the lower half of my body, and didn’t concentrate on my arm. This was a huge win.”

Hoover went 2-for-5 with a double and homer, and Green had a 2-for-3 day at the dish. Eight of Kokomo’s 12 hits went for extra bases. O’Neal, Reel, and Michael Moreno all tagged doubles.

The losers’ bracket final was rained out Saturday night and pushed back to 11 a.m. today. Kokomo will play the winner at 1:30 p.m. in the championship round, and will have to lose twice to be sent home. The if-necessary game is set for Monday. The State Finals will be played next weekend in Plymouth.

“Immediately, I savored the victory with the players on the field afterwards,” Spall said. “On the way back [to the hotel] on the bus, my coaches and I already started talking about what we are going to do [today]. We’ll head back down to the park and see who we are going to end up playing.

“To be sitting undefeated in the regional and one win from state feels really great.”