BETHALTO – Tucker Shalley is someone the Jersey American Legion baseball team counts on both with the bat and on the mound.
Last Wednesday, Shalley came through when he was needed most in Wednesday’s nine-inning 2-1 Jerseyville American Legion win over Civic Memorial’s summer team at Bethalto Sports Complex.
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Shalley stepped in to pitch in the top of the fourth and went the rest of the way to get the win as well as coming up with a big two-RBI single in the top of the ninth to give Post 498 the win.
“We really want to improve our batting because we’re losing Collin Carey and Blake Wittman (from Jersey’s high school team for next year); they both set the (Jersey) record for batting average, but I think John Collins and Zeke Waltz are going to step up and do that pretty well,” Shalley said.
Of what turned out to be his game-winning single, “I’m just trying to do my part here, just win games,” Shalley said. “It’s all about being competitive and stuff and in the summertime, get better.”
Shalley, a rising junior for the Panthers, is anticipating stepping up into a leadership role with next spring. “I think the summer’s a huge part of that,” Shalley said. “We’re all trying to transition into that, Zeke and even John; as a group, we’re trying to transition into that, with some of the freshmen we saw coming up today, I think they did a very good job doing their part; it’s really nice.”
Shalley turned on a curveball for the game-winner. “I was thinking curveball all the way; I knew he (Nick Vaughn) wasn’t going to give me a fastball or anything obviously,” Shalley said. “I read it right and got into it.”
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