High hopes abounded for the Highland Post 439 legion baseball team to be playing for the 5th Division tournament championship last weekend on Sunday. However, a hard-luck Saturday spelled doom for Post 439.
A day after beating the Aviston Express, Highland was eliminated from the 5th Division Tournament at the Bethalto Sports Complex thanks to a 6-5 semifinal loss to Orient Post 1361 and an 11-6 elimination round loss to host Alton Post 126.
It was a painful end to what looked to be a strong postseason run for Post 439.
“It was pretty disappointing (not to get to Sunday) and the big one was the extra inning game versus Orient, where if we ended up winning, we’d probably reversed roles with them had we come out as the winner of that game but that’s how baseball goes,” Highland manager Todd Kunz said. “Those are the turning points.”
The tournament started well enough for Highland last Friday as Post 439 rode some timely hitting and a strong pitching outing from righthander David Carroll to a 3-1 quarterfinal-round victory over the Aviston Express.
“David’s done a great job for us all year,” Kunz said. “Especially his hitting, which has been a pleasant surprise what he could do offensively and defensively and I knew he would be a solid pitcher for us.”
Preston Feig’s RBI fielder’s choice grounder made it 1-0 in the top of the second. Aviston tied it 1-1 with a run in the bottom of the sixth.
Post 439 took the lead for good in the top of the seventh as Eric Potthast singled home a run and Ben Kunz drew a bases-loaded walk which made it 3-1.
Highland returned to Bethalto on early Saturday afternoon and battled eventual champion Orient Post 361 from West Frankfort in a nip-and-tuck affair but came up short, losing a 6-5 decision in eight innings in the semifinals.
Down 5-4, Highland tied it with a run in the bottom of the fifth but could not score after that as Orient posted a run in the top of the eighth to move onto Sunday’s championship game.
“Those are tough situations when you go extra innings because that would have set us up for a good run in the tournament there,” Kunz said.
That led to an elimination round game late Saturday afternoon against Alton Post 126.
Post 439 fell into a deep hole early as Alton jumped out to a 7-0 lead against Highland starter Ben Kunz thanks to four runs in the top of the first and three more second-inning tallies.
Post 439 climbed back into it in the bottom of the third as Justin Terhaar ripped a three-run homer, cutting the lead to 7-3.
Highland pulled closer in the bottom of the fourth as Eric Potthast hammered a three-run double, which trimmed the deficit to 8-6.
Alton responded with three insurance runs and Post 126 reliever Tyler Mills closed things out as Highland’s postseason run was brought to a grinding halt.
Highland outhit Alton 19-10 but left 12 runners on base as Alton beat them for the fourth time in six meetings this season. “We were short two pitchers against Alton and they both likely would have been available Sunday had we made it but that’s the way it goes,” Kunz said.
Despite coming up short of the Fifth Division championship game, Kunz feels like his club had a pretty successful summer going 16-9.
“We didn’t make it to the division championship but we were an extra inning game win out from being in the spot where you want to be but we just weren’t able to pull off that (Orient) game,” Kunz said.
Most Popular
Comments / 0