Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
WOOD RIVER - With a combined 14 errors and several other mental misjudgments in the field, the East Alton-Wood River Oilers outlasted the Warriors of Calhoun 17-12 on a cold Friday afternoon at East Alton-Wood River High School.
Given the lack of outdoor practice because of the amount of precipitation in the build-up to the season, errors were inevitable.
“It was very sloppy from the infield and outfield,” East Alton-Wood River head coach Kyle Duncan said. “We have a really young team, and we’ve been outside basically three times all year so it’s kind of tough and we’re going to have some mistakes. It’s going to a problem for the next couple of weeks. They got the win and pulled it out, and I think overall it’s a step in the right direction.”
With the many runs racking up to a low-scoring football outcome, Calhoun head coach Casey Longnecker couldn’t help, but make a comparison while on the expectation side things were concerned ahead of time about the Warriors defense.
“We couldn’t stop any third down conversions, and so they got the extra touchdown on us,” Longnecker said. “The thing I was worried about coming into this season was defense. I think we’re going to hit the ball a little bit, and the pitching will come around, it’s going to be decent, but we got to find some guys in different spots to shore up our defense. We haven’t been outside to get much work on the diamonds and the elements with the wind and sun in your eyes for both teams makes for an ugly game.”
Devin Curtis, who batted sixth in the lineup for the Oilers was 3-for-4 at the plate with four RBI and three runs scored. Gage Booten finished 3-for-5 and scored three times as well while Jared Liley was 1-for-4 but tallied five RBI and scored three times.
Freshman right-hander, Joey Orban made his first ever varsity appearance for EAWR. His first two innings were perfect. However, he lasted four innings after being forced to exit due to pitch ineffectiveness due to arm trouble. Orban struck out seven batters, walked one, gave up four hits, and four earned runs, still managed to walk away with the win.
“It’s a good start for his first varsity start,” Duncan said of Orban. He kind of left his curveball hanging a little bit, and his arm started to hurt so we got him out.”
In the top of the third inning, while Orban’s arm started to linger, Calhoun’s bats came alive.
They got started with an RBI single by Nelson and a two-run double by other sophomore Grant Gilman. In the top of fourth, after tying the game on an error, senior Bradley Rose put Calhoun ahead 6-5 with an RBI single.
Nelson would finish 3-for-5 and Gilman was 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBI. Freshman, Luke Wickenhauser was 2-for-4 with two RBI.
Having seen their five-run lead slip away, the Oilers responded in the bottom of the fourth by scoring five runs. They put two men on base and then a throwing error allowed two runs to score followed by a two-run triple by Curtis who was later brought home by an RBI groundout by Jake Wells.
“They started being aggressive in the counts, and they did a lot of good things at the plate,” Duncan said. “We took advantage of couple errors, and it kind of all worked out for us.”
Calhoun responded with two runs in the top of the fifth, but EAWR tallied seven more runs in the last two innings before holding off the Warriors in a four-run seventh inning.
As sloppy as the defense was on both sides yesterday, it’s safe to assume this will by no means be the permanent image of these teams for the season, especially in Calhoun’s case.
“We’re definitely going to better than what you saw tonight towards the end of the year,” Longnecker said. “It’s going to take some tweaking. More live at-bats and more games.”
More like this:
