Senior American Legion Baseball: Post 439 splits two District 22 games
The Highland Post 439 Senior Legion baseball team split two District 22 games last week at Glik Park.
First, on Tuesday night of last week, Highland took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, but the offense then dried up, and the Belleville Post 58 Hilgards rallied late to score a 6-1 win over Post 439 in what was slated to be a doubleheader.
The second game of the twin bill was postponed due to inclement weather and is scheduled to be played this Friday at 8 p.m. at Glik Park.
Two nights later, on Thursday, Highland, which was the road team, bounced back to outlast Swansea-Fairview Heights 5-4 in 10 innings and pick up a much-needed win.
It was Post 439’s first District 22 victory of the season while it also earned Highland the season split with the Giants.
“Hopefully this will give us some momentum moving forward before the playoffs begin (this coming Tuesday),” said Highland coach Harry Painter, whose team at press time had a 2-4 overall record and a 1-2 mark in District 22 play. “We have left 43 men on base in six games. That’s been our Achilles heel. We have 23 stolen bases and five sacrifices in six games, and those are good numbers. But we need to stop leaving runners on base and slow down our strikeouts. If we make more contact with runners on base, we will strand less runners and we will be more successful as a team.”
Tonight, Highland is scheduled to host East St. Louis in a doubleheader, with the first game set to start at 6 p.m.
Highland 5, S-FH 4
After Post 439 battled from behind in regulation and both teams matched one another in the first extra inning, Highland pushed across a fortuitous winning run in the top of the 10th frame, thanks in large part to a lot of help from the Giants’ defense.
Jimmie Smith led off by reaching on an error. He then moved into scoring position on a sacrifice, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a passed ball with two outs.
Griffin Welz threw a scoreless bottom half of the 10th — his successive shutout frame — to make the single tally hold up and nail down the victory.
Welz (2-0) allowed no hits and walked two while fanning one in his two-inning outing. He has recorded both of Highland’s wins on the bump this summer.
Offensively for Post 439, Andrew Winning, Will Greenwald and Brendan Standfield all collected two hits apiece.
Winning banged out a pair of doubles, drove in a run and stole a base while Greenwald stole two bases, knocked in a run and scored a run. At press time, Greenwald had swiped eight bases in the team’s first six games.
Adding one hit each for Highland were Seth Luitjohan (two walks, one stolen base, on run), Cody Bentlage (two stolen bases, one RBI, one run, one sacrifice) and Greene.
Highland actually got on the scoreboard first with a single tally in the top of the first when Bentlage coaxed a one-out walk, stole second base and then came around to score on Winning’s two-out RBI double.
But Post 439’s lead was short-lived as starter Brandaon Camp struggled out of the gate. The left-hander gave up three runs (two earned) over the first two innings, including two in the first frame.
Camp settled down and threw two scoreless innings to make it through four frames before coach Harry Painter relieved Camp with Blaine Ray due to a climbing pitch count.
Ray worked the next four innings, including recording a shutout for the first three frames.
Highland battled back to knot the game at 3-3 with a two-run fifth. Luitjohan drew a leadoff walk and stole second base before Greenwald chased him home with a one-out RBI single. Greenwald then stole second before coming around to score when Bentlage reached on an error.
Both teams scratched across a run in the eighth.
In the top half, Jordan Smith drew a one-out walk. Jimmie Smith came in to pinch run for him and promptly stole second. Next, Greene singled to put runners at the corners and Welz put Post 439 ahead briefly with a run-scoring fielder’s choice.
But the Giants finally broke through with a run off Ray in the home half to send the game into more extra play and set the stage for Highland’s eventual win in the 10th.
Ray only allowed the one earned run, three hits and one walk in his four innings. He struck out one.
Belleville 6, Highland 1
On Tuesday night of last week, the Belleville Hilgards doubled up Post 439 in hits, 14-7, and received a strong complete-game victory from right-hander Josh Davinroy.
The Post 58 right-hander, who pitches for Greenville College, surrendered just one earned run and issued only one walk while scattering seven hits and striking out four. At press time, Davinroy had a 3-1 record with a 2.10 ERA in 30 innings covering seven appearances, four of them starts.
Highland actually jumped on top first after picking up a single run in the home half of the first. Greenwald led off with a single and ended up stealing both second and third bases before scoring on Bentlage’s one-out RBI ground out third.
But that was the only run Davinroy allowed to cross home plate. He blanked Post 439 over the final six frames, despite Welz and Jordan Smith each going 2-for-3, Winning and Blaine Ray each getting one hit and Austin Brown drawing a walk.
Post 439 ended up leaving eight runners on base.
Highland starter Matt Beyer made his team’s 1-0 lead stand up by shutting out Belleville through the first four innings.
But the Post 58 got to Beyer for two runs in the fifth. In five innings of work, Beyer’s line was just the two runs (one earned) on eight scattered hits and one base on balls while striking out two.
Zach Chapman, a left-hander, came in to relieve Beyer to begin the sixth. The Hilgards greeted him rudely as they knocked him around for two earned runs in each of the sixth and seventh innings on six combined hits and one hit batsman. Chapman did end whiffing three batters.
Belleville Post 58 had six different hitters produce multiple-hit games, led by Parker Beine and Cal Kossina, who each went 3-for-4 with one double. Beine also knocked in a pair of runs and scored one and Kossina also crossed home plate once.
Chipping in two hits apiece for the Hilgards were Spencer Piquard (one RBI), Luke Glaeser (one walk, one run), Matt Klosterman (one run) and Sam Haudrich (one run).
This story was originally published July 8, 2015 at 5:07 AM with the headline "Senior American Legion Baseball: Post 439 splits two District 22 games."