Thursday, August 9, 2007 11:03 PM CDT
Belleville rallies to stay alive
AMERICAN LEGION STATE TOURNAMENT
BY BRIAN NIELSEN Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
MATTOON - Belleville squandered early opportunities but Mitch Mattecki and Marucs Hustedde kept hitting to keep Post 58 in the American Legion baseball state tournament.
With Matecki hitting two triples in a 3-for-5 game and Hustedde also going 3-fof-5 including a triple and a double, the Hilgards of Belleville came from behind for to beat Danville 7-4 Thursday night at Grimes Field.
Having already lost Wednesday’s tourney opener, Belleville was playing a win-or-go-home game.
The comeback has Belleville, 35-7, in today’s second game scheduled for 3:30 p.m. against Rock Island Post 200, the only undefeated team left in the six-team double-elimination affair at 2-0.
Danville, which is 1-1 in the tourney and 38-13 for the year, is to play its third straight 7 p.m. game against the winner of the noon elimination game between the tourney’s two northern teams Arlington Heights and St. Charles.
Belleville finally went ahead for good in the bottom of the seventh when Hustedde drove home Rod Mueth who had singled after Mitch Matecki had reached on an infield error and scored the tying run on an outfielder’s throwing error.
Mitch Matecki, whose brother Tony had to leave the game when hit in the face by a pitch in the seventh inning, tripled and scored an insurance run for Belleville in the eighth.
Jonathan Schweppe went the distance for the win striking out eight batters and surviving 10 Danville hits.
Avion Forthenberry, who the previous inning ultimately cost his team a run trying to stretch a double into a triple, had regained a Danville lead with an infield single in the top of the seventh.
That brought home the unearned run as Jordan Barney had led off the seventh with a single and got to third when Jake Jurczak reached on an error with two outs giving Forthenberry his chance.
Tyler Burk’s first home run of the season, a solo shot over the left field fence, had pulled Belleville into a 3-3 tie in the bottom of the sixth inning.
That came after a top of the sixth in which Danville failed to score despite back-to-back doubles by Forthenberry and David Worthington, who was left stranded even though another batter reached on a dropped third strike.
Danville took a 3-1 lead in the second inning as Chas Sanford led off with a walk, Ryan Scrogham had a run-scoring hit, Barney also singled and Michael Kasper had a run-scoring double.
Belleville missed some opportunities early.
Two of its first three batters, Mitch Matecki and Marcus Hustedde, hit triples that were sandwiched around Rod Mueth’s sacrifice fly but only one run scored in the first inning as Danville pitcher Justin Cox struck out the next two batters.
Kyle Martens singled and scored on Scott Johnston’s single in the Belleville second but with runners on first and third Danville prevented the tying run as the third baseman Scrogham and second baseman Brandon Jones turned an inning-ending double play.
Belleville also stranded two runners in the third.
Danville AB R H BI
Jurcsak, ss 5 0 1 0
Forthenberry, cf 5 0 2 1
Worthington, rf 4 0 1 0
Sanford, lf 3 1 0 0
Montgomery, 1b 4 0 0 0
Scrogham, lf 4 1 1 1
Barney, dh 4 1 2 0
Jones, 2b 3 1 0 1
Kasper, c 4 0 2 1
Totals 37 4 10 4
2B-Kasper, Forthenberry., Worthington, Barney.
Belleville AB H R BI
M. Matecki, ss 5 3 3 1
Mueth, 1b 4 1 1 2
Hustedde, rf 5 0 3 1
T. Matecki, cf 2 0 0 0
Hoelscher, pr 0 0 0 0
Alberter, c 4 0 1 0
Mertens, 2b 4 1 2 0
Burk, dh 4 1 1 1
Geolat, lf 3 1 1 0
Johnston, 3b 4 0 1 1
Totals 35 7 13 6
2B-Huckstedde. 3B-M. Matecki (2), Hustedde. HR-Burk.
S-Geolat. SF-Mueth.
Danville 030 000 100 - 4-10-3
Belleville 110 001 22x - 7-13-3
Pitchers IP H R ER BB SO
Danville
Cox, L 6 1/3 10 5 4 1 3
Lewellyn 1 2/3 3 2 2 0 1
Belleville
Schweppe 9 10 4 3 1 8
Contact Brian Nielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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