ALTON - The Alton River Dragons will host Jackson on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, with fans able to enter for $2 by donating baby care items or money to the Community Hope Center as part of Baby Derby Night.
The promotion comes as the River Dragons also continue a stretch of roster and staff changes while looking for improvement in the second half of the season.
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On Monday, the River Dragons shifted dugout responsibilities, elevating pitching coach Andrew Olney to field manager and assigning newly hired assistant coach Blake Vandiver to hitting coach duties. On Wednesday, the team also added assistant coach Mateo Okimoto from California. Jarrod Brissenden exits the organization with a 27-50 record over a season plus as field manager.
Olney becomes the sixth field manager in team history, joining Darrell Handelsman from 2021-22, Richard Scott in 2023, Dallas Martz in 2023, Noah Suarez in 2024, and Brissenden from 2025-26.
At the plate, Ethan Wielt leads River Dragons players with at least 30 at-bats in OPS at .988. He is followed by Griffin Kelly at .815, Charlie Renco at .808, Brandon Gour at .729, Jake Ottensmeier at .715, Florent Riep at .704 and Ryan Hartz at .701.
Wielt had his fifth three-hit game of the season Tuesday at Cape. He is on pace to finish with 75 hits, which would rank second in team history behind Blake Burris’ 78 in 2022. Wielt’s .388 batting average is 10th in the league.
Ryan Hartz is hitting .333 with three doubles over the last week.
The River Dragons also have shown stronger production at home. Among players with at least 20 at-bats at home, Wielt leads with a .444 average and eight RBIs. Charlie Berry is hitting .346 at home, Gour .333 and Ottensmeier .318. As a team, the River Dragons are hitting .279 at home compared with .219 in road games.
Since Friday, the River Dragons have officially signed five new players, including four pitchers, for the second half. Infielder Nick Ryun, originally on the roster, also has joined the team.
The schedule remains difficult. Of their 23 games in the first half, Alton played 17 against teams currently with a winning record. In the second half, eight of the first 10 games will be against teams with winning records. There are eight teams other than Alton with losing records, and the River Dragons are scheduled to play six combined games against them in the second half.
Pitcher Hayden Wilson has already thrown 24 innings and is on pace to become just the fourth player in team history to reach 50 innings pitched in a season, and the first since 2022. Adam Stilts holds the team record with 64.1 innings pitched in both 2021 and 2022.
The River Dragons’ recent history and league precedent offer examples of second-half improvement. Last season, Champion City finished the first half with three wins and then won 17 games in the second half, missing the playoffs by percentage points. In 2023, Champion City finished last in its division in the first half with 10 wins, then won 19 in the second half and again missed the playoffs by percentage points.
Since 2023, three teams have improved by 10 or more wins in the second half: Champion City in 2025 at plus-14, O’Fallon in 2025 at plus-11 and Thrillville in 2023 at plus-10. O’Fallon and Thrillville both won second-half playoff spots with those runs.
