ALTON - Adam Stilts made his final start of the season a good one, striking out eight batters while allowing only one run on four hits as Alton Post 126's American Legion baseball team took a hard-fought 2-1 decision over Belleville in the opener of a season-ending tournament Saturday afternoon at Lloyd Hopkins Field at Gordon Moore Park.
The Legionnaires scored both of their runs in the third, and Stilts made them stand up in another great pitching performance, the kind he's specialized in during this shortened summer season, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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"It was," said Alton manager Doug Booten. "It's a very good Belleville team, and we found a way to win it."
The pitching performance from Stilts, where he threw another complete game, was the biggest key to the win.
"Adam was grinding it out on the mound," Booten said. "He didn't have his best stuff, but he pushed through it, and when he needed to make a pitch, he made it."
And the Legionnaire's two runs came about as a team effort as well, doing the little things exactly right to produce the results.
"In the third, we move a couple of guys over," Booten said. "Ryne Hanslow gets a bunt down to move them over, Adam gets a hit to the right side to get one run in, and Cullen (McBride) had a base hit up the middle to get the second guy in. It took five guys to get those two runs in. It was definitely a team effort."
Those two third inning runs stood up for Alton, although the Hilgardes did score once in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 2-1. but brilliant pitching by Stilts shut the door on Belleville, as Alton took their first win of the tournament.
McBride and Trenton Segarra both went two-for-three in the game, with Hanslow and Blaine Lancaster having the other hits for Alton. Stilts and McBride indeed did have the two RBIs on the afternoon for the Legionnaires.
Stilts went all the way, allowing the one run on four Belleville hits, walking four while fanning eight and hitting another batter. Stilts threw 108 pitches on the day, 70 of them for strikes.
Belleville committed the game's only error, and left eight runners on base, while Alton stranded five.
