Belleville advances in District 22 Legion tourney with win over Highland
Luke Vallandingham didn't get a lot of opportunity as a sophomore at Belleville West.
But the soon-to-be junior pitched the Belleville Hilgards from the brink of elimination in the District 22 American Legion baseball tournament Wednesday.
Vallandingham beat Highland, 5-1, on four hits and the Hilgards advanced in the double-elimination tournament.
"When you keep pounding the ball where the catcher has his mitt, you can expand a little," said Belleville manager Zach Rakowski. "Luke used what he was given and his location was super."
Belleville (24-8) will get a tournament rematch with Fairview-Swansea, which defeated the Hilgards in 12 innings Tuesday. Fairview-Swansea was bounced to Thursday's loser's bracket game with its loss to the top-seeded Metro-East Bears Wednesday.
The two teams will meet at Whitey Herzog Field in Belleville's Citizens Park at 7:30 p.m.
"We've had two really close games with them and there's no reason we shouldn't expect the same tomorrow," Rakowski said.
Vallandingham faced just one more than the minimum after getting a one-run lead in the third. He struck out eight, including two each in the seventh and eighth. Highland managed its only run in the top of the ninth.
Belleville took the ealy lead in the third when Casey Arnold lined a one-out single, advanced to second on a ground out, to third on a wild pitch and scored on a high chopper on the infield which Cal Kossina beat out for an RBI hit.
The Hilgards got two more in the sixth, which proved to be the game winners.
Kossina reached on an error and Matt Klosterman beat out a sacrifice bunt attempt for a hit. Both runners advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Luke Frazier and scored on a base hit up the middle by Spencer Piquard.
"Spencer always does a great job putting the ball in play, so we feel good with him at the plate and runners in scoring position," Rakowski said. "In a close game like it was, those two runs were very big."
The wheels fell off for Highland starter Matt Beyer in the seventh inning.
Luke Glaeser led off with a walk and a single by Sam Haudrich put runners on first and third with one out. Cal Kossina reached on a fielder's choice when Haudrich was called for interfering with the second baseman on a ground ball.
Glaeser scored on a misplayed grounder off the bat of Klosterman and Frazier lined a double into the left-field gap to score Kossina for Belleville's fifth run.
"I thought Matt pitched a phenomenal game," said Highland coach Harry Painter. "They scored some unearned runs off him which hurt. We hit the ball on the button early the game and I really though it was going to be a little closer, but their pitcher did a great job and Matt just didn't get a lot of help behind him."
Highland scored a run in the top of the ninth when Blaine Ray singled, advanced to third on an Andrew Winning double and scored on a ground ball by Jordan Smith.
Beyer lasted six and two-thirds. He allowed three earned runs on 10 Belleville hits while striking out three and walking one. Griffin Welze was solid in relief, allowing just one base runner on an error and striking out one.
Highland's season was delayed more than two weeks by Highland High School's Class 3A state championship run. Three key pitchers from that team elected to not join the summer team. Baumgartner was injured in the state championship game, Grant Geppert played in Mascoutah and Tyler Kimmle decided to not play at all.
Coupled with an unseasonably rainy summer, Painter said his team never found its rhythm.
"We lost 14 games before we played our first one," he said. "We just never had a chance to put it all together."
This story was originally published July 15, 2015 at 11:10 PM with the headline "Belleville advances in District 22 Legion tourney with win over Highland."