ALTON – With mostly sunny skies, a nice breeze on top of temperatures well into the 80s, it was a perfect day for a baseball game at Gordon Moore Park.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
Luckily for the East Alton-Wood River High School Oilers baseball team, it was also a perfect day for a 2-1 win against the Marquette Catholic High School Explorers.
“It was a good win for us. We did a lot of things right.” EAWR coach Kyle Duncan said after the game. “Blake [Marks] has kind of been a cap to the game for us and he’s carried us on his shoulders all year and we played a heck of a game today.”
The Oilers have won eight of their last nine games and Duncan also mentioned that it’s been a few years since his team has been able to defeat the Explorers.
The two teams played quite closely, allowing only two hits by the Oilers in the first inning.
The action really began in the third, when Luke Wells set off a chain reaction of plays for the boys in maroon. After hitting the ball out to right and earning his position at first, Christian Hunter hit a double out to far center, allowing Wells to run across home plate for the first run for their team.
On a sacrifice pop fly to center by Tyler Hamby, it was time for Hunter’s turn to round home. However, the base runner was called out for not tapping back after his slide across the plate. Discussions between the umpire and East Alton’s coaches got a little tense and Duncan was restricted to the dugout after asking about the call. The score stood at 1-0 in the Oilers’ favor.
“I thought it was a pretty bad call,” Duncan said. “We kind of battled through it.”
Marquette began to pick up the pace in the third with a line drive single by Nick Messinger. After a ground ball to right field, Zach Weinman’s hit allowed Jacob File to advance to second. With another line drive to second base by pitcher Liam Maher, Messigner tied the game at the bottom of the third.
Runs were held at a stand still until the top of the seventh inning, until Cody Blacklock was walked. Wells came to the plate and got another hit, advancing Blacklock to second. Hunter then came up and got job done by scoring Blacklock on a sacrifice fly to right.
Both pitchers, Blake Marks and Maher, struck out six batters. Batters earned eight hits and two runs off of Maher, where as Marks only allowed five hits and one run.
For East Alton-Wood River, Hunter made scored one run from three successful hits. Luke Wells landed on base twice from hits and scored one run. Blake Weishaupt and Hunter Hall leach anded on base once. Marks also made one hit.
Marquette Catholic’s Messinger landed on base twice while Weinman, Maher and Konnor Morrisey hit once each.
|
TEAM |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
Article continues after sponsor message
RUNS |
HITS |
|
Oilers |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
8 |
|
Explorers |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
5 |
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PHOTO GALLERY
More like this:
