Edwardsville downs New Athens 20-1, advance in District 22 playoffs

Jul 17, 2018 7:28 AM

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EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville American Legion Post 199 advanced in the Illinois District 22 baseball playoffs Monday night.

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The way they did it left absolutely no doubt.

Edwardsville’s sent 19 batters to the plate in the bottom of the third as they pounded out 13 hits and scored 14 times as Post 199 defeated New Athens 20-1 in four-and-a-half innings to advance in the winner’s bracket of the tournament; they’ll meet up with Valmeyer, 2-0 losers to Alton Monday, at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Hoppe Park with Valmeyer facing elimination.

New Athens will clash with Highland, who fell to Belleville 6-5 in eight innings Monday, in a loser’s bracket game at 7 p.m. tonight at Glik Park while the Hilgards travel to Alton for a 6 p.m. Tuesday game in the winner’s bracket.

“They hit the ball,” said Edwardsville manager Ken Schaake. “We got a couple of hits to the empty player (New Athens had only eight players on the field Monday) – other than that, they hit the ball hard and deserved what they got.

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“Everybody starts over 0-0 – you have to play hard and have to be ready to play whoever it is. New Athens has made some noise in the playoffs before – you can’t overlook anybody; you have to be ready to play. The kids played well, Brandon (Hampton) pitched a good game.”

Post 199 came out of the gates quickly; Tate Wargo led off the bottom of the first with a double, which was followed by a Mikey Hampton single that put runners on the corners; Joel Quirin then doubled both home to send Edwardsville to a quick 2-0 lead through the first inning. A Will Messer RBI single brought in Andrew Yancik in the second to extend the lead to 3-0.

Then came the bottom of the third; Quirin, Chase Goeckel and Alex Schreiber all reached base to begin the inning before Nick Yates struck a bases-clearing double to increase the lead to 6-0 and ignite the big inning; Wargo had a two-run double and RBI single in the inning, Quirin had a RBI triple and Yancik struck a two-RBI single to highlight the outburst.

Yancik added to the score with a two-RBI single in the fourth and Konnar Loewen had a RBI single to give Edwardsville their final run. Hampton got the ball for Edwardsville and went four innings, not giving up just one hit – a Levi Dobb double in the fourth – and dismissing seven 76ers by strikeout.

Edwardsville will be playing a team that will be facing elimination Tuesday. “We’ll be playing a team that has to win,” Schaake said. “We want to win too – we don’t want to be going that extra game in the loser’s bracket if we don’t have to.”