Elk Grove eliminated from state Legion
Elk Grove had already been in this situation in the American Legion baseball postseason where it needed to bounce back from a tournament-opening loss.
But an Alton team making its first state tournament appearance in 57 years didn’t give Elk Grove the chance to duplicate the run it made in the Cook County tourney.
Alton (29-10) won 4-2 to eliminate Elk Grove (21-15) from the state tournament Thursday night at Jim Sundberg Field in Galesburg.
“It was a really good game,” said Elk Grove coach Brian Mucha. “It was intense. It was good baseball.
“They’re a solid team and it was the same stuff they did against Galesburg (6-3 win Wednesday). They didn’t make mistakes and they’re really fundamentally sound.”
Elk Grove left-hander Paul Warble allowed 3 runs and had 7 strikeouts in 7 innings before Art Sutter went the final 2 innings.
“Paul pitched great and got of a couple of big jams,” Mucha said. “Art did a good job, too. We didn’t hit and when we did, we hit balls right at guys and we couldn’t string anything together.”
Alton added an insurance run in the ninth to set up an unbeaten matchup at 3:30 p.m. today with Rock Island (32-8), a 10-4 winner over Elgin (27-10). The Alton-Rock Island winner plays for the state title at noon Saturday.
Elgin has a noon elimination game with Mattoon (21-16), which won a wild 18-16 game in 14 innings over Galesburg (38-14). The Elgin-Mattoon winner plays the Alton-Rock Island loser at 7 p.m.
Alton split its pitching as its starter went 5 innings and its reliever went the last four. Elk Grove’s only scoring came from Nick Hilliard and Dave Geller.
In the fifth, Hilliard doubled and Geller singled to cut the deficit to 2-1. Two innings later, the roles were reversed as Hilliard singled and scored on Geller’s two-out double to get Elk Grove within 3-2.
“We should have gotten to their first guy — he didn’t throw very hard but he had a little break on his ball,” Mucha said. “They had a big lefty who closed against Galesburg and he did a nice job. We hit it well but right at guys.”
Elk Grove loses Connor McHugh, Joe Belmonte, Julian Sipiora and Nick Fillmore from its second state-qualifying team in three years. Eleven players — including Warble, Sutter, Ryan Hayes and shortstop Thomas Byrne — are eligible to return.
“It told them it’s up to you guys whether or not you want to continue with this,” Mucha said. “There are some other talented guys (who could play next year). It’s up to them if they want to be any good but I’m optimistic.”