EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville and Triad both begin post-season baseball quests this week.
The Tigers are now 25-8, and open the Class 4A playoffs Wednesday at home against Collinsville, also on Wednesday, starting at 4:30 pm.
Triad opens the postseason in the Class 3A Jersey regional May 22 against the host Panthers on May 22, with a 6 p.m first pitch.
The two area squads slugged it out on Friday night to a very close baseball game.
Chase Alwardt singled home Lucas Krebs with the winning run in the home half of the seventh inning as Edwardsville edged Triad in a baseball game played Friday evening at Tom Pile Field.
The game was delayed before the start caused by a sudden downpour that hit the area right after 4 p.m., but the game was able to be played without further delay
The Tigers scored the winning run with three straight hits in the seventh. Krebs led off with a single, and was doubled over to third by Lucas Huebner. Alwardt then stroked a single on a 0-1 pitch to right field to score Krebs and win the game.
The Tigers took a 2-0 lead in the second, with both teams trading a run in the third to make it 3-1 The Knights then hit Edwardsville in the fifth with three runs to go ahead 4-3, with the Tigers tying the game with a run in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game 4-4, setting up Alwardt’s heroics in the seventh with the winning run.
Bryce Beyers had two hits, including a solo homer, and a RBI for the Tigers, while both Alwardt and Greyson Rathgeb both had a hit and RBI, Huebner and Krebs both had a hit each, and Evan Moore drove in a run. Chase Milburn started on the mound, and went three innings, and allowed an unearned run on a hit, walking two and striking out two, while Alec Marchetto went two innings, allowing three runs on three hits, walking one, Tyler Powell went 1.2 innings, giving up no runs or hits, walking two and fanning one, and Ethan Stewart got the final out of the seventh to pick up the win.
Hayden Bugger had a hit and RBI for Triad, while Hayden Bernreuter and Brady Coon each had a hit, and Carter Vandever drove in a run. Sawyer Brunson started on the mound, and went four innings, allowing two runs on four hits, walking one and striking out three, with Coon going two innings, giving up two runs, one earned, without a hit, walking three and fanning three, while Drew Winslow pitched in the seventh, allowing a run without a hit, walking three.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.