BRIGHTON - The Southwestern Piasa Birds Senior summer league team (5-2) was defeated by the Gillespie Elite by a score of 11-7 Tuesday evening. The junior team won 16-6 the night before.
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Quinten Strohbeck started on the mound for Southwestern and tossed four innings allowing the first 10 runs from Gillespie.
After the second inning, the Piasa Birds were down 5-0. They put some runs on the board in the bottom half when they put a few good hits together. They also had some good base running to advance players into scoring position. They scored three runs to make it a 5-3 ball game.
The Elite came back out though to make it 7-3 after three, 10-3 after four, and 11-3 after five.
The bottom of the fifth is when Southwestern piled on some more runs and all of it was done with two outs.
After back-to-back doubles, the Piasa Birds tacked on a run. They had runners on first and second. A single scored another run and then two wild pitches allowed a couple more runs to cross the plate. Southwestern only trailed 11-7 with an inning to go.
Unfortunately for them, the comeback was cut short and the Elite picked up the victory on the 90-degree evening at Schneider Park.
"We're here to get better," Southwestern head coach Brian Hanslow said postgame. "We batted the whole roster tonight which affects things. When you bat 11 guys, your better hitters don't get as many at-bats."
He mentioned that the Elite is a quality ball club with guys from Gillespie, Staunton, and Carlinville. Meanwhile, his team is just Southwestern students.
The two teams will play again on July 5th at 6 p.m. at Schneider Park.
Both Southwestern teams will be back in action on Tuesday, June 21, with the junior team playing at 5:30 p.m. and the senior squad at 7:30 p.m. They will be taking on Jerseyville in a double-header at home.
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