ALTON – Things didn’t start well for the Alton High School baseball team Thursday afternoon.
The Redbirds hosted Southwestern Conference rivals O’Fallon, and it was the Panthers who struck early. Literally, as early as possible.
Dane Hrasky sent the game’s opening pitch over the left-field wall for his first home run of the season. Carson Bauer and Connor Blue followed that up with back-to-back singles before Camden Cox hit an RBI single to score Bauer, advancing Blue to third.
Cox got caught in a rundown while attempting to steal second, but he caused enough distraction for Blue to come around safely, to make it 3-0.
The Redbirds managed to come back with four runs in the bottom of the first and would go on to hold out for a 5-4 win.
Blue, O’Fallon’s ace, was on the mound and struck out his first batter before getting into some trouble. Reid Murray singled, and then Deon Harrington was walked. Carsen Bristow came up and hit an RBI single to score Murray from second to make it 3-1.
That brought up Ayden Calvert, who blasted a three-run shot to left-center field to give the Redbirds an improbable 4-3 lead.
“With the wind blowing the way it was today, you hit it at the right trajectory; that was pretty much a no-doubter,” Alton head coach Scott Harper said about Calvert’s big hit. “He’s had some good at-bats for us, and he’s worked hard.”
Maybe no one had to work as hard on Thursday as Anderson Kaufmann. He was Alton’s starting pitcher, and after giving up three runs in the first, he was locked in.
He put up four scoreless innings before Logan Hickman replaced him in the sixth. Kaufmann struck out five batters while allowing three earned runs on six hits.
“He’s played in some big games, but he’s still green,” Harper said of Kaufmann, the varsity team’s only freshman. “So, the composure there, like I told him, he still kept his pitch count down, even with all that action. It was great for all of us to stay together, stay behind him.”
Alton tacked another run on in the bottom of the second when Murray did his job, grounding out, but scoring Jack Puent in the process to make it 5-3.
Blue singled again to lead off the top of the third, and then Kaufmann hit Cox with a pitch. Asher Cantu advanced the runners to second and third, but Kaufmann dug deep and got Cole Becker to pop out and struck out Sam McCollum.
Kaufmann faced even more trouble in the fourth. With runners on the corners, Harper came out for a mound visit during Blue’s at bat. After trying to pitch around Blue, he was intentionally walked to load the bases with two outs. That brought Cox back up, who flew out.
Kaufmann went three up, three down with two strikeouts in the top of the fifth. Blue did the same in the bottom half, going groundout, strikeout, groundout.
Hickman replaced Kaufmann, and he had to work for absolutely everything to close out the game. He struck out his first two batters before walking Hrasky. He quickly stole second base and got to third after a wild pitch. That made things easy for Bauer, who singled to bring Hrasky home and make it 5-4.
McCollum replaced Blue on the mound for O’Fallon and went three up, three down with two strikeouts, sending the game to the top of the seventh.
After Cox grounded out, Cantu singled, and then Tyson Filyaw was walked to put the pressure on Hickman with runners on first and second and only one out. But back-to-back flyouts sealed O’Fallon’s fate as it picked up just its second loss of the season.
The Panthers drop to 12-2 overall and 1-1 in the Southwestern Conference, splitting a home-and-home series with the Redbirds. O’Fallon beat Alton 8-5 back on Tuesday, snapping a five-game win streak for the Redbirds.
O’Fallon lost its first game of the season before rattling off 12 straight wins.
Alton improves to 12-5 on the season and 3-1 in the SWC, having already won two conference games over East St. Louis.
“Those are the types of games that we are hopefully in,” Harper said regarding the grueling conference game. “We didn’t help ourselves on Tuesday; they just came out and hit the ball on us, so being able to respond today, after they make it tough on us right from the get-go, but I don’t expect anything different. They’re a great club, facing Blue, one of the best arms in our conference. Just a great response from our guys.”
Alton was scheduled to take on Class 1A powerhouse Father McGivney on Saturday at Busch Stadium, but that game has been cancelled due to the projected weather forecast. It’s unclear at this time if Alton will play a make-up game at Busch Stadium this season.
So, that means the next games for the Redbirds will be back in the Southwestern Conference when they play a home and away against Belleville East on Tuesday and Thursday.
