John A. Logan College hands SWIC a 23-2 loss

Playing only minutes from home, former O’Fallon High School standouts Jeff Hahs had a day to remember on Thursday at Southwestern Illinois College.

A standout sophomore outfielder at John A. Logan College, Hahs had a pair of two-run doubles — in the sixth inning — to key a 14-run uprising as the Volunteers went on for a 23-2 win over SWIC in a Region 24 baseball game.

With scouts from at least six major league teams on hand to watch Volunteers ace Matthias Dietz and his 95 mph fastball, Hahs and teammate Tyler Robertson stole the show as they combined to drive in 11 runs and had eight hits for a streaking John A. Logan team that improved to 17-4 for the season.

SWIC starter Tyler Greene, the first of five pitchers used by veteran SWIC manager Neil Fiala, took the loss.

SWIC fell to 10-10 for the season.

Robertson, who went 4-for-5 with four RBI, gave Dietz an early lead when he hit a one-out solo home run in the first inning, then added run scoring singles in the second and fourth innings as the Volunteers, a junior college power, took a 5-2 lead.

But when Hahs and Landon Harris both hit two-run home runs off Greene in the fifth inning, the Volunteers had a 9-2 lead and were in firm control of the game.

“They (John A. Logan) are a very good team, but I honestly think that three pitches were the key in the game,” Fiala said. “We made a mistake on an 0-2 pitch to Robertson in the first inning and then we made a couple of mistakes when they hit the two two-run home runs in the fifth inning.

“We had a couple of chances early against Dietz when we didn’t get the big hits. If we score a couple of runs there, it may have changed the game.”

How it went

Hahs, a strapping 6-foot-4, 220-pound sophomore outfielder, increased the Volunteers lead to 2-0 with an RBI single in the second and the lead grew to four runs later in the inning when a SWIC error Robertson single made it 4-0.

The Blue Storm loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the second and freshman Ray Adams made it 4-1 with a sacrifice fly. But Dietz got out of the inning with no further damage.

The Blue Storm cut the lead to 4-2 in the bottom of the third when former Belleville West standout Matt Klostermann walked, stole second base and scored on a double by sophomore Jacob Monti. But that was as close as SWIC would get.

Leading 9-2 heading to the top of the sixth inning, the Volunteers took off. The first 13 batters all reached base and all scored as Fiala tried, with three different pitchers, to cool off the smoking, red-hot John A. Logan College bats. Hahs led the Volunteers’ uprising with two two-run doubles.

“It’s just one of those days. Every team goes through a day like this once in a while,” Fiala said. “We held back with some of our top pitchers in the sixth inning and gave some of the other kids a chance.

“Tomorrow is another day. Hopefully we’ll come back and play better then.”

This story was originally published March 17, 2016 at 10:39 PM with the headline "John A. Logan College hands SWIC a 23-2 loss."