Redbirds open new field with Kanallakan walkoff homer
GODFREY – Alton's baseball team hadn't played a game on its' own campus in 35 years; rainy spring weather prevented a couple of tries to play a game on their new on-campus facility earlier in the season.
Considering what happened Tuesday afternoon, it was well worth the wait.
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The Redbirds' Jacob St. Peters and Collinsville's Parker Marchbanks got into an old-school pitchers' duel, the Redbirds taking advantage of a Kahok mistake in the third to hold a 1-0 lead that looked like it was going to stand up – until Brayden Arnold got ahold of a St. Peters pitch and sent it over the boards in left to tie the game in the top of the seventh.
All that led to Jacob Kanallakan leading off the bottom of the seventh; he got the count to 3-1 and knew he'd get something good to hit.
And all Kanallakan did was send the pitch to the deepest part of the field to give the Redbirds a dramatic 2-1 win in their first game in the new facility.
“I'm just trying to get something started,” Kanallakan said. “We only needed one run; if I get on, we get a pinch-runner, get a guy going, maybe get a run. I wasn't thinking home run, but then I got to 3-1, so I knew I was going to get a good pitch to hit and I just put a good swing on it.”
“I can't think of more of a team effort,” said Redbird coach Todd Haug. “Kanallakan bunted earlier in the game, and then he comes back and hits the home run here. I mean, anyone in the lineup willing to give themselves up, up and down playing selfless baseball, it was a good day today.”
The Redbirds were coming off a loss the previous day in Sauget to Carlyle, and Haug was pleased with how the Redbirds shook off the loss. “A good bounce-back for us after an uncharacteristic night for us last night,” Haug said. “We didn't know how the hops would be; we've taken some ground balls here, but I think everything played pretty fair. It was a little slow because of how damp it is, but in this case, it's easy to play good (defense) when you have a guy like (St. Peters) on the mound.”
Alton got their first run in the bottom of the third when, with Steven Patten on third, Robbie Taul lifted a fly ball that was caught. Patten had to run back to third to tag up and then attempted to score; in the confusion, the ball was thrown to the wrong base and allowed Patten to score. “It was probably a mistake on their half not tagging up right away,” said Kahok coach Pete Trapp, “and it was a mistake on our half not throwing to the right guy. Next thing you know, they're up 1-0; it hurts, but it's part of the game and we have to do a little better with that.”
Both St. Peters and Marchbanks threw excellent games on the day; Marchbanks gave up two runs, both earned, on five hits while fanning four. St. Peters himself gave up an earned run on three hits and dismissed six by strikeout. “Our guy (Marchbanks) threw the ball real well,” Trapp said. “I'm very proud of the way he threw. (St. Peters) obviously threw real well and we had three hits, so he did a really good job on us.”
The previous Tuesday, St. Peters shut down Edwardsville in a 4-1 win at Tom Pile Field, and in Tuesday's game, St. Peters threw another excellent game for an Alton win, both in key Southwestern Conference games. “I'm just really confident in myself,” St. Peters said, “I'm having good bullpens (bullpen sessions) in practice and I just feel really good about myself right now.”
St. Peters' lone mistake came in the top of the seventh on the homer to Arnold; he got ahold of a 1-1 pitch and sent it deep to left to tie the game; St. Peters shook off the homer and struck out Dan Vlasic and got Will Stowers to ground out to shortstop to end the inning. “He's just a mature high-school baseball player that can throw multiple pitches for strikes,” Haug said of St. Peters, “and he won't back down from anybody.”
All that led to Kanallakan's heroics to end the game. “It felt good, but I didn't think it was going for a home run,” Kanallakan said. “I didn't see it go over; I just heard everyone going nuts; it was exciting.”
The Redbirds went to 11-4 on the year, 4-1 in the league; the Kahoks fell to 9-8 overall, 2-3 in the SWC. The Redbirds remained in a four-way logjam atop the SWC with Edwardsville, Belleville West and O'Fallon all at 4-1 in the league with Alton; the Redbirds travel to Belleville West for a 4:30 p.m. SWC game with the Maroons.
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