Chester takes fourth in wood bat tournament

Posted June 03, 2017 11:00 pm

By Pete Spitler Editor@heraldtrib.com

STEELEVILLE -- Cameron Pearson struck out seven in a three-hit shutout, and Orient Miners Post 1961 scored all of its runs in the middle innings of a 7-0 win over Chester Post 487 in the third-place game of the American Junior Legion Wood Bat Tournament on June 4.

Chester was originally scheduled to play Carrier Mills in the contest, but American Junior Legion State Chairman Butch Ogle informed the Herald Tribune before the game that Benton did not have enough players to play, so Carrier Mills was moved into the championship game with Red Bud.

That left Chester facing a Orient team that had lost both its games in the West Frankfort pool.

"(Sunday) the difference in our game was we made the plays," said Orient coach Kevin Elko. "I think we had only one error in the field and we struggled with that the last couple games.

"We've averaged probably three or four errors per game."

Chester (4-3) got runners in scoring position in the third and sixth innings, but wasn't able to get the key hit to jump start its offense. Ethen Eggemeyer, Owen Korando and Michael Wingerter had Post 487's hits, all singles.

"We were just a little flat," said Chester coach Trevor Kelkhoff. "I thought we weren't aggressive enough on the field - some balls were hit in the outfield I thought we should have made some plays on - and Eggs (Eggemeyer) tries to put it all on his shoulders and tries to do a little bit too much and when he does that, it leads to walks and gets his pitch count up and it's an uphill battle at that point."

Eggemeyer lasted three and a third innings for Chester, four days after throwing a five-inning no-hitter against Pinckneyville.

He allowed six hits and five walks with six strikeouts, and exited with Orient leading 3-0 in the third and threatening to add more with the bases loaded and only one out.

"He was on kind of a limited pitch count (Sunday) anyway," Kelkhoff said of his soon-to-be sophomore pitcher. "He threw quite a bit in the last week, with his third outing in the last two weeks, so we didn't want to overexpose him."

Korando came on in relief of Eggemeyer, giving up a RBI single to Tyson Broy for Orient's fourth run and getting Ryan Hopkins to hit into a 3-2 fielder's choice that brought Post 1961's fifth run across the plate.

Orient added its final two runs in the top of the fifth on a two-run double by Logan Elko. Clay Herrell pitched the final two innings for Chester, allowing only three walks and striking out three.

"We got the hits when we needed to get hits," Coach Elko said. "We were walked a couple of times as well, that helped us, but we really hit the ball when we needed to hit the ball."

Chester was scheduled to travel to Campbell Hill on Tuesday for a nine-inning game before visiting Red Bud on Saturday at 11 a.m. for the 25th District opener.

<ul>

<li>Red Bud 11, Chester 1</li>

</ul>

CHESTER -- Griffin Ziebold struck out eight batters, and Red Bud scored four runs in the first two innings of a win over Chester in five innings on May 30 on the first day of pool play of the American Junior Legion Wood Bat Tournament.

Chester (2-2) got its lone run in the top of the third when Hunter Munie was hit in the helmet by a pitch and later went to second on a wild pitch and later scoring on another wild pitch to cut Chester's deficit to 5-1.

Red Bud countered with three runs in the bottom half of the inning and took a 11-1 lead with three runs in the bottom of the fourth.

<ul>

<li> Chester 11, Pinckneyville 1</li>

</ul>

CHESTER - Ethen Eggemeyer threw a five-inning no-hitter, while going 2-for-4 with a double at the plate, leading Chester past Pinckneyville on May 31.

Eggemeyer allowed one run on two walks and struck out five for Post 487 (3-2), which scored two runs in each of the first two innings before adding three runs in the third, one in the fourth and three in the fifth to end the game early.

Ethan Bert went 2-for-2 and Clayton Richelman went 1-for-3 with a double for Chester, which evened its wood bat tournament record at 1-1.

<ul>

<li> Chester 7, Campbell Hill 2</li>

</ul>

CHESTER -- Curt Meyer went 1-for-2 with a home run, and Chester scored five runs in the sixth inning of a win over Campbell Hill on June 1.

Nick Meyer picked up the complete-game win for Post 487 (4-2), allowing both runs on four hits while striking out 17.

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