Belleville Hilgards open Legion playoffs against rival Metro-East Bears

While the American Legion Baseball District 22 season was a bit unusual because of the shortage of teams this summer, there was no shortage of drama.

With the Belleville Hilgards, Metro-East Bears and Highland all tied with 2-2 records in district play, a three-way tie to determine the No.1 playoff seed went to the tiebreaker of runs allowed. Highland ended up with the No. 1 seed, followed by the No. 2 Bears and No. 3 Belleville.

They were the only three teams in the district this season.

Belleville (13-14) opens the double-elimination district playoffs with a 7 p.m. game Tuesday against the Bears (15-4) at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Simmons Baseball Complex.

“We went into the last game knowing if we could have beaten Highland we could have got first,” Belleville manager Jonathon Schweppe said of a 10-0 loss on June 30. “Instead we ended up getting last.”

The odd three-way tie scenario occurred after Belleville beat the Bears twice during the regular season, Highland beat Belleville twice and the Bears beat Highland twice.

Belleville beat the Metro-East Bears twice by the same score of 4-3, with pitchers Jake Frazier and Matt Sisk picking up the victories.

“Jake threw a gem,” Schweppe said of Frazier, who allowed just three hits in the first five innings and struck out 10 overall, getting late relief help from Tai Kezirian. “Jake had 10 strikeouts — five of them looking and four on 3-2 counts.”

In Sisk’s win, Schweppe said the Hilgards were using a patchwork lineup with several players unavailable to play that day. Pitchers were occupying two of the three outfield spots with several players at different positions than usual.

Playing third base that day, Gavin Strieker turned in several defensive stops to help save potential big innings. Three of them started momentum-killing double plays.

“He’s the one who saved the game for us,” Schweppe said. “They for sure score at least six runs if he doesn’t stop those balls and make the plays he made.”

Some of the Hilgards’ top hitters have been first baseman Wyatt Parker, pitcher-outfielder Sisk, Kezirian at designated hitter and Jake Jenkins.

Schweppe said Sisk struggled near the end of the Belleville West high school season, but has turned things around during the summer.

“He just started teraring it up for us,” said Schweppe, who also praised Parker’s extra-base hits and consistency. “He’s been a pretty good hitter all year.”

The top pitchers have been Frazier, Southwestern Illinois College recruit Rorey Keen and Sisk.

“Our pitching’s been probably our strongest area, they’ve kept us in most of the games,” Schweppe said. “Our hitting’s been up and down but our pitching’s been pretty consistent.”

With only playing six league games, Schweppe said a lot of the team’s inconsistency stemmed from facing so many different and mostly unknown opponents in non-league tournaments.

“It’s a little different,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to go from a district game to jumping into tournaments to play teams you’ve never seen. I think that’s one of the reasons we’re 13-14. We get off to a slow start in some of these games when we don’t really know the competition.”

The Hilgards were 2-2 at a tournament in Terre Haute, Ind., last weekend and earlier this summer won three of four games at a Kokomo, Ind., tournament.

Now their attention turns to the playoffs and two extremely familiar teams.

“I think they’ll be ready,” Schweppe said. “They know it’s win or go home. I know they can do it and they know they can do it. They’ve just got to be ready.”

The District 22 playoff winner advances to the Fifth Division Tournament July 18-22 at West Frankfort.

Jerseyville plays host to the state tournament July 27-30 and the Metro-East Bears play host to the Great Lakes Regional Aug. 3-7 at SIU Edwardsville.

As host teams, Jerseyville and the Bears each have guaranteed spots in their respective tourney fields. The American Legion World Series is set for Aug. 11-16 at Shelby, N.C.

This story was originally published July 11, 2016 at 6:44 PM with the headline "Belleville Hilgards open Legion playoffs against rival Metro-East Bears."