ALTON - The Alton Post 126 American Legion baseball team scored single runs in the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings and also got strong pitching performances from both Hayden Garner and Hayden Sherman to take a 2-1 win over Highland Post 778 and win their District 22 playoff series two games to one to advance to the Illinois Fifth Division tournament this weekend in West Frankfort. The game was played at Lloyd Hopkins Field in Gordon Moore Park on Sunday afternoon.
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The Legionnaires bounced back from a first-game loss to Highland to win the second game of a doubleheader on Saturday, then rallied to win the deciding game on Sunday to move on in the Legion playoffs.
Highland scored a single run in the second inning to take a 1-0 lead, but Alton came back to tie the game in the fifth, then plated a run in the sixth to take the win and advance.
Garner helped himself at the plate with three hits and a RBI, while Scott Vickrey had a hit and RBI and both Ashton Schepers and Will Fahnestock had hits.
Garner threw five innings on the mound, allowing an unearned run on four hits, walking three, and striking out three while Sherman pitched the final two innings to get the win, only allowing a hit while walking one and fanning three.
Post 126 advances to the Illinois Fifth Division tournament in West Frankfort, which is scheduled for this Thursday through Sunday. The winner goes to the Illinois state tournament in Galesburg on July 26-30, with the state champion representing Illinois in the Great Lakes regional, set for Aug. 3-7 in Midland, Mich. The winner goes to the Legion World Series, scheduled for Aug.10-15 in its now traditional home of Shelby, N.C.
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