JERSEYVILLE – Edwardsville American Legion Post 199’s baseball team did not advance to today’s semifinals of the Firecracker Classic baseball tournament Sunday, dropping a 5-4 decision to Jefferson City, Mo., when Post 5 scored twice in the top of the seventh before falling to Elgin, Ill, 6-2 in their final two group games of the tournament at Ken Schell Field in Jerseyville.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
Post 199 finished group play with a 2-2 record while Jeff City advanced to today’s semifinal contest at 10 a.m. with a 4-0 mark in the group.
Edwardsville conceded three runs in the top of the first against Jeff City, but rallied to take a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth before Post 5’s two-run seventh to win the game. “I guess it started with the first inning,” said Post 199 manager Ken Schaake. “We made a bunch of mistakes in the first inning; we didn’t handle a rundown well, we threw a ball away, which is uncharacteristic of us playing that way; we gave them two runs right away.
“We had some opportunities where we had guys on base, on third base – bases loaded, second and third – and we could not get that extra run in. We really could have used it.”
Issac Garrett got the ball for Post 199 and did a good job, Schaake felt. “You can’t fault Garrett’s job on the mound for us,” Schaake said. “That really wasn’t all his fault in the first inning; we gave up a bloop hit into right field and we made a couple of misplays on the bases.”
Jeff City’s three first-inning runs came on a sacrifice fly that scored Zachary Stiles, a steal of home by Parker Schneiders and an error that led to Hayden Hirschvogel scoring a third run to put Post 5 on top; Edwardsville responded in the bottom of the first on Will Messer’s RBI single that scored Mikey Hampton to cut the lead to 3-1; Messer had another RBI single in the third to drive in Hampton again to cut the lead to 3-2.
Garrett kept Jeff City at bay from that point to keep the score the same until the bottom of the fifth when Chase Goeckl singled and Messer drew a walk to bring up Alex Schreiber, who delivered an RBI double to put score Goeckl and Nick Yates lifted a sacrifice fly to center to score Messer and put Edwardsville ahead for the first time at 4-3.
It stayed that way until the top of the seventh when Joseph Travis doubled in Schneiders and Hirschvogel with what proved to be the winning runs.
Against Elgin, Edwardsville fell behind early and couldn’t catch up, Elgin scoring six times in the first; Post 199 scored twice in the bottom of the inning, but never scored again, eliminating the Legionnaires from the tournament.
Group host Jerseyville Post 492 fell 9-1 to Jefferson City in five innings in the opening game of the day as Schneiders had six RBIs in the game thanks to three doubles in a 3-for-4 game. “It was a tight game at the beginning and we just didn’t do enough right,” said Jerseyville manager Darren Perdun. “We’re still learning on the fly, trying to do better every day and things like that. We’re battling, though, working hard and getting better – it’ll come; we’re battling the age bug right now.”
John Collins and Ethan Snider had hits for Jerseyville in the game; Post 492 dropped a 10-2 decision to Quincy in the group’s final game Sunday night. Jerseyville finished 0-4 in the group.
More like this:
