Extra-inning homer sinks Lancers, keeps Alton perfect

Fresh off their win over O’Fallon Tuesday, the Alton Redbirds arrived at Belleville East looking to take leg two of a week-long Southwestern Conference gauntlet.

Tomi Dublo hit a two-run, two-out home run in the eighth inning to lift Alton to a 4-2 win over the Lancers and preserve the Redbirds’ perfect record after eight games.

They’ll be back at home next Tuesday against rival Edwardsville with a chance to complete the seven-day trifecta.

“It’s been a pretty good week. I’ll take that any time,” said Alton coach Dan Carter. “But like I told the girls, enjoy it now then get back to work tomorrow because we’ve got Edwardsville Tuesday.”

It’ll back to practice for Belleville East, too. The Lancers (7-3) were coming off an emotional win over Belleville West earlier in the week, but hasn’t been hitting the way coach Natalie Peters thinks the team should be.

Alton senior pitcher Brittany Roady (8-0, .69 ERA) held the Lancers to one earned run on six hits. She struck out eight and coaxed East into eight pop-fly outs.

“Our offense just isn’t anywhere close to where it needs to be for us to be the team we want to be,” said Peters. “We need to go to practice tomorrow and get some of the kinks out of our swings and learn to make better decisions about the pitches we’re swinging at. We have to go back to figure out how we’re going to score runs by hitting line drives instead of popping everything up.”

Key Moments

Alton took a 1-0 lead in the fourth off East starter Angela Vanderpluym, but not without some controversy.

Shortstop Savannah Fisher chopped the ball just in front of the batter’s box and beat the throw to first by catcher Alex Boze. But the East bench argued that the ball hit Fisher’s bat again after it bounced in front of the plate and should have been ruled a dead-ball out. Fisher eventually was forced out at second, but Sydney Hartman eventually scored to put Alton on top.

The Redbirds added another run in the sixth when Tami Wong singled, advanced to third on a two-base throwing error and scored on a passed ball.

The Lancers tied it up in the bottom of the sixth inning when, with the bases loaded, sophomore Kristina Bettis hit a sharp ground ball that was mishandled by the Alton shortstop. Jessica Belzer and Sierrah Baffa both scored.

Lindsey Mossman tried to score from third on a passed ball, but was out in a close play at the plate.

“We shut them down after they scored and did a nice job with the passed ball to get that runner out,” Carter said. “That would have been the game.”

After a scoreless seventh, Katelyn Presley led off the Alton eighth with another swinging bunt which Peters argued, once again, should have been an out because it hit the batter in the foot.

Two batters later Dublo connected off Bettis, who entered the game in relief of Vanderpluym, with a home run over the fence in dead center field.

“I was just going up there looking for a solid hit to get my teammate in. I wasn’t looking for anything special,” said Dublo, who was 0-3 prior to that at-bat. “I was struggling a little bit at the beginning, but I just came out and had to keep a positive attitude and do what I had to do for my team.”

Pitchers

Vanderpluym was solid for East, allowing one earned run on six hits through five and a third innings. Bettis retired nine of the 11 batters she faced including two strikeouts.

“Kristina came in and got us out of a tough situation,” Peters said. “Obviously, she hung one at the end and the girls made the most of it. But she’s also very young. She’ll learn from that. She’s been great for us all year.”

Roady went the distance for Alton.

Top Hitters

Wong was 2-4 with a runs scored for Alton. Bronte Fencel had two singles and an RBI.

Belzer led East with two hits, including a double and run scored. Mossman had two singles and Ally Blomberg had another.

What’s next

Alton is at home Tuesday against Edwardsville (5-2); Belleville East will be at Granite City (4-3) Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.

Dahm out

East outfielder Becca Dahm is likely out the remainder of the season after an MRI Thursday confirmed a complete tear of the ACL and partial tears of her MCL and meniscus. Dahm injured the leg during warm-ups prior to the Lancers game at Belleville West Tuesday.

This story was originally published March 31, 2016 at 9:24 PM with the headline "Extra-inning homer sinks Lancers, keeps Alton perfect."