Bears wrap up Division title with win over Hilgards

It took until the midway point of the American Legion District 22 final for Metro East to score, but when the top-seeded Bears got on the board, they were rolling on their way to a 7-2 victory over the Belleville Hilgards.

After going down 2-0 in the fourth, Metro East got on the board in the bottom of the inning.

Jordan Hovey led the rally off by being hit by a pitch and after a stolen base and balk was at third.

Two batters later, Matt Zielonko walked and came around to score, along with Hovey, on a two-run single by Maverick McSparin.

The Bears offense kept rolling in the fifth inning, when they took a 4-2 lead.

Anthony Kindle started it with a walk and came around to score on Aaron Jackson's single, which also moved Drake Hampton to third.

Hampton later gave Metro East a 4-2 lead when he scored on a wild pitch.

"I don't know if you'd call it a big hit, the outfielder made a bit of an error, but it got down," Jackson said. "It counts as a hit in the book, and I count it as a hit too.

“Honestly, we just needed that momentum since they (Belleville) got two in that upper half. We just needed to keep hitting."

In the Nos. 2 and 3 spots in the lineup, Hovey and Jackson were the Bears top hitters.

Hovey went 1-for-2 with three stolen bases and two runs. Jackson was 2-for-4, which included an RBI triple that helped give the Bears a 7-2 lead.

Jackson attributed his success to a previous encounter this season.

"Whenever you've seen a pitcher before, you know what they got," Jackson said. "Sometimes, you'll have a one-pitch at bats and that doesn't help. You won't see as many pitches as you can. Today, I thought we did a good job adjusting."

Zacary Cato got the win for the Bears, going 5 1/3 innings.

In his time on the mound, Cato gave up two runs on six hits and struck out two. Kory Loew and Drake Hampton combined to shutout the Hilgards during the final 3 2/3 innings of the game.

Hampton did struggle in the ninth, but still kept the Hilgards off the board.

"I just had the mindset to get the game over with," Hampton said. "I was just trying to pitch to contact. With wood bats, they aren't going to go far. I was just trying to throw strikes."

For his efforts throughout the tournament, Hampton was named the Most Valuable Player.

The victory gave the Bears a perfect record in the District 22 Tournament and means they will continue play against the winner of Teutopolis and Harrisburg at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

"I don't know them (Teutopolis or Harrisburgh), but we're playing really well," said Cato, who was the winning pitcher against Belleville. "We're all confident and we're all playing really well right now."

The loss for the Hilgards ends their season with a 26-9 overall record. Wyatt Parker took the loss, going five innings and giving up four runs on five hits.

"Wyatt did a good job last time (talking about the team's previous game)," Belleville manager Zach Rakowski said. "We were pretty deep into the staff with this being our fourth game, so we tried to double it up and see if we could catch lightning in a bottle again."

This story was originally published July 18, 2015 at 12:04 AM with the headline "Bears wrap up Division title with win over Hilgards."