Alton Rallies Past Oswego in Metro East Kick Off Classic

Mar 20, 2026 6:58 PM

Listen to the story

Alton junior Donavon Ducey on the mound against the Oswego Panthers Friday, March 20 at Alton High School. (Photos by Brad Piros)

ALTON – The Alton High School baseball team improved to 2-0 on the young season after a come-from-behind 3-1 win over the visiting Oswego Panthers.

Get The Latest News!

Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.

After opening the season with a 2-1 win over rivals Marquette earlier this week, the Redbirds hosted the Chicago-suburb school for a game that’s part of the Metro East Kick Off Classic presented by Prep Baseball Illinois.

The Redbirds host two games, Friday afternoon’s game against Oswego, and Saturday afternoon’s tilt against Huntley, both strong competition from up north in IHSA Class 4A.

Other area schools take part and host games including Edwardsville, O’Fallon, Columbia, Triad, and Civic Memorial.

Alton head coach Scott Harper likes the way his team opens up the campaign and has been loving the results.

“It’s always this first weekend, that several Chicago teams come down and play almost everybody here in the Metro, teams from Effingham come down, Chatham Glenwood, Kentucky even comes up,” Harper said.

“It’s just a great event. [Oswego’s] coach said they’ve still got snow on their field up there from earlier this week. Now they come down here and it’s 86 degrees. So, great opportunity, great weather, and a chance to get to see some good clubs.”

And two games into the season, the results have been stellar.

Only five runs through two games, but two wins at the end of the day.

“That’s what we’ll take. That’s going to be our biggest M.O. this time of year,” Harper said. “Pitching is doing a good job for us, and defense, and we’re getting the timely hits, so, I’m not going to complain at all. We’ll take them like that every bit, because it will help us in the long run if we play some tough ball games early like this. Oswego is going to have a good season, so to get a win is nice.”

The Panthers led this game through three innings.

Article continues after sponsor message

Learn about our advertising opportunities!

In the top of the third, Oswego got back-to-back singles to open the frame. A sacrifice bunt got those runners to second and third and one run would eventually score on an error to make it 1-0.

Alton didn’t have an immediate answer but rallied back in the bottom of the fourth.

Jack Puent and Logan Hichman drew two straight walks and a sac bunt from Alex Pilger pushed them both up 90 feet. Up came the starting pitcher Donavon Ducey who laid down a two-RBI groundball to right to give his team a 2-1 lead.

Alton got an insurance run an inning later thanks to some nice baserunning by Anderson Kaufmann. He took a one-out walk and stole his way around to third. He scored on a passed ball to make it 3-1.

Donavon threw the first four innings, Amari Raglin relieved him for two innings, and Fletcher Groppel made the save. The three combined for just two strikeouts, but all combined for a 65 percent strike rate.

Oswego put a lot of balls in play, but Alton’s defense stood its ground.

And that’s the game plan.

“That’s the name of the game,” Harper said. “You run yourself into trouble when you start working from behind. So, that’s what I told them. Throw strikes, they’re going to get some hits, but they’re also going to hit some balls at us. It keeps the defense working, and from the pitching mindset, you gain much more confidence from that because they might hit a ball hard and we’ll make some plays, and we made some good plays today.”

Alton outhit the Panthers 5-4 on the day. Parker Cannon, in the DH spot, was responsible for two of those hits for Alton as he went 2-for-3. Pilger and Puent each recorded hits, and of course Ducey with the two-RBI single in the fourth.

Alton hosts Huntley on Saturday, March 21 at 12:15 p.m., however expect that game to run a little late because of the 10 a.m. start time between Bradley-Bourbonnais and Reavis right before at Alton High School.

The Redbirds will then be back in action at home next week on Tuesday, March 24 when they host Granite City.