Shalley two-run single sends Jerseyville Legion past CM summer team 2-1
BETHALTO – Tucker Shalley came up with the big hit for Jerseyville’s American Legion baseball team Wednesday evening as Shalley had a two-run single in the top of the ninth to help Post 498 get past Civic Memorial’s summer team 2-1 at Bethalto Sports Complex.
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The win put Post 498 to a 5-2 mark on the summer while CM fell to 2-2.
Shalley also took over on the mound in the fourth and went the rest of the way in getting the win; Post 498 coach Chris Skinner said that Shalley seeing Brett Tuttle and Ryan Johnes pitching was something he learned from. “He learned a lot from watching those guys throw,” Skinner said. “It’s paid off; he had a couple of pitches get away, but that’s going to happen.”
Much like CM’s summer team, many of the Post 498 players played for Jersey during the spring and getting valuable experience that will help them next high school baseball season. “They’re seeing good competition,” Skinner said. “That’s the whole key in the summertime; what they have to realize is to play together, be together, learn what each other is doing. I saw guys tonight that were getting into the right positions, guys were talking and that’s huge.
“It shows leadership on the field and the kids feed off of that; John Collins did a good job of calling pitches tonight, so it’s important to get these 35-40 games in the summer – that’s an extra 100-110 at-bats, so that’s what we’re looking for.”
CM coach Nick Smith is also using the summer season to help prepare the Eagle players for next spring. “Baseball’s going to happen; you’re going to make errors, you’re going to have misplays,” Smith said. “Really, it came down to we didn’t score enough runs, I thought (down the stretch of the high school season) and we saw good pitching; we didn’t get the timely hits we had to. That’s our goal; between now and next March – let’s get to work, let’s grind it out; we need ot have a better approach at the plate, the situational hitting has to be better and we’re going to do that. We’re going to get to work and be better at it.”
The pitching on both sides helped keep the game scoreless for eight innings before Shalley stepped up the bases loaded in the top of the ninth and delivered a single to right-center that brought in Zeke Waltz and John Collins with the runs Jerseyville needed; Shalley then was touched for a triple by Nick Vaughn with one out in the bottom of the ninth before Bryce Zupan hit a sacrifice fly to center to bring in Vaughn to cut the lead to 2-1. Chandler Powell then walked to put the potential tying run on base, but Shalley got Ethan Hannaford on a strikeout to end the game.
Shalley dismissed nine Eagles by strikeout in his stint on the mound and conceded five hits in 5.1 innings pitched on the night.
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