FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS - Alton Post 126's senior American Legion baseball team got great pitching performances in both games, allowing only three runs on nine hits while striking out 12 combined in two games as the Legionnaires defeated Ballwin, Mo. 2-0 and drawing with Trenton 3-3 in their first two games of the Firecracker baseball tournament Friday morning and afternoon at Moody Park in Fairview Heights.
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The tournament, returning this year after having been cancelled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, also has Highland and Washington, Mo. playing this year.
In the Friday morning opener against Ballwin, the Legionnaires made single runs scored in the first and sixth innings stand up as Bryce Higginbotham scattered three hits in pitching a complete game to take the win.
Nick Rayfield led the way for Alton with two hits, while both Brady Salzman and Preston Schepers each had a hit and RBI and both Cameron Hailstone and Brendon Smith also had hits for the Legionnaires.
Higginbotham went all the way on the mound, scattering the three hits while striking out five in the game.
In the second game against Trenton, Alton scored single runs in the first, fourth and fifth innings before Trenton scored three times in the fifth to tie the game, which is how it ended after the seven regulation innings. Extra innings were not played.
Blaine Lancaster led Alton with two hits, while Hailstone and Schepers each had a hit and RBI. Owen Macias started on the mound and pitched five-and-one-third innings, giving up three runs on five hits while walking one and fanning six. Hailstone threw the final inning-and-a-third, conceding only one hit while walking one and striking out one.
