BELLEVILLE – Alton American Legion Post 126’s junior baseball team may not have won a game in the Firecracker Classic tournament over the weekend, but the junior Legionnaires certainly turned some heads.
Post 126’s team went 0-4 in their group in the tournament, but they led or were tied in all four games coming down the stretch before losing leads in the late going, including a walkoff loss Sunday morning.
“We performed really well,” said Post 126 manager Dennis Sharp, who split his squad and sent the older players to the Firecracker Classic while the younger players took part in a wood-bat tournament in Greenville. “We had four pitchers for the Firecracker and I’m proud of all of them; they’ve worked well together and it’s a good experience for all of them.”
Saturday’s games saw Post 126 take a 2-0 lead on Festus, Mo., with single runs in the first and the third innings, only to see Festus put together a five-run rally in the bottom of the sixth to take a 5-2, then tied Morgantown, W.Va., in the top of the fifth 1-1 only to see Morgantown score in the bottom of the fifth to take a 2-1 win in Saturday’s second game.
Sunday’s first game saw Post 126 take the lead three times from Belleville’s senior Hilgards at 2-0 in the second, 5-3 through the fourth before the Hilgards tied it with two in the bottom of the fourth, then 7-5 in the top of the sixth before Belleville scored once in the sixth and twice in the seventh for a walkoff win. In their finale against Jefferson City, Mo., Alton fell behind 3-1 in the first inning but pulled to 3-2 in the fifth and tied it 3-3 in the sixth before Jeff City scored twice in the bottom of the sixth to take a 5-3 win over Post 126.
Against the Hilgards, Gage Booten went 2-for-3 with a RBI and two runs scored, Blake Marks 1-for-3 with a RBI and run scored, Bryce Parish 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored, Cullen McBride 1-for-4 with two RBIs, Ben Mossman 1-for-2 with two RBIs, Griffin Bianco a run scored, Adam Stilts 1-for-4 with a RBI and Rylee Bernot 1-for-2 with a run scored. Bernot went the distance in taking the loss; he struck out three for the game.
Against Jeff City, Best went 1-for-3 with a RBI and run scored, Booten 2-for-3, Marks 1-for-4, Parish 1-for-3, McBride 1-for-4, Bianco 2-for-4 with two runs scored, Stilts 1-for-3 and Bernot 1-for-2. Parish struck out three in going the distance in taking the loss.
In the Greenville tournament, Friday’s scheduled games were rained out; Saturday’s games saw Alton drop a 3-1 decision to Shelby County but defeat Salem 4-3, falling just short of advancing. “We had some good pitching,” Sharp said of the Greenville tournament games.
Wesley Laaker and Owen Stendeback got the ball for Alton’s games.
Post 126 will be traveling to Wheaton for a tournament this weekend, taking on Altamont at 5:30 p.m. Friday and host Wheaton at 8 p.m. Friday, then meeting Ford Iroquois County at 12:30 p.m. Saturday and Moline at 3 p.m. Saturday before closing out their regular season with a 6 p.m. July 10 doubleheader against Breese Red. The Division 22 playoffs begin later that week in Valmeyer.
