Highland’s bid for American Legion Fifth Division baseball title falls short in Alton

On Sunday for about five innings, the Highland Post 439 senior American Legion baseball club had a great opportunity to advance to the Fifth Division Tournament.

In the sixth inning, that chance slipped away.

Alton’s Scott Vickery came through with a run-scoring single in the bottom of the inning and Post 126 held off Highland in the top of the seventh for a 2-1 win, claiming the District 22 Championship at Lloyd Hopkins Field at Gordon Moore Park in Alton.

Alton (14-13) moves on to the Fifth Division Tournament on Thursday in West Frankfort.

It was a painful end to the postseason for Highland manger Todd Kunz, who saw his club’s season end at 13-10.

“It’s bittersweet and it kind of stinks as we got beat 2-1 Sunday and they were all good games,” Kunz said.

In the championship game, Highland scored its only run of the game in top of the second as Eric Potthast doubled to center and then scored on Joe Chouinard’s RBI-double to left field for a 1-0 lead.

Alton drew even in the bottom of the fifth making it 1-1.

Then in the bottom the sixth inning, Vickery singled home a run off of Highland starter Owen Holzinger, pushing Post 126 ahead 2-1.

Alton reliever Austin Schepers stopped Post 439 in the top of the seventh as Highland’s bid to advance to the Fifth Division Tournament for the first time since 2019 came up just short.

“We came into the seventh and they got three up and three down but we a couple of fills that were hit right at people and throughout (the) three games it seemed like we had a lot of extremely well hit balls and a lot of hard-hit balls and pretty much a lot of them were right at the centerfielder but that’s how that goes and that’s the way baseball goes sometimes,” Kunz said.

Holzinger turned in a solid effort in taking the loss, going six innings, walked two and struck out one.

On Saturday, in the best of three series, Alton won the first game of the doubleheader 6-3 and Highland rebounded with a 3-1 victory in the nightcap.

Colton Bultema led the way on the mound for Highland going the distance for the win. Bultema struck out five with no walks and gave up just three hits.

“Colton Bultema threw like 80 pitches (for us) and just did a fabulous job,” Kunz said.

Potthast powered the offense with a two-run double in the top of the first, putting Highland in control early.

Despite falling short in the District Championship game, Kunz was very happy with the way the team developed ate in the season as Highland won five of its last seven games before last weekend’s playoff exit.

“I was pleased with our performance and we finished the season at 13-10 which I’m very happy about as we had four wins in a row before this three game series with Alton, so I’m pleased with what the kid did (this year),” Kunz said.