Mistakes, missed chances hurt Alton in State Legion Tourney loss to Danville – Alton Telegraph

AVISTON – Mistakes and missed chances cost Alton Post 126 in its opener at the American Senior Legion Department of Illinois State Tournament.

Opportunities to score early went awry, and mistakes in the field enabled Danville Post 210 to score in each of the second through sixth innings in disposing Alton, 8-2, in the state opener at Aviston Community Park on Wednesday.

Alton (19-11) actually had the lead in this game when it scored on a two-out single in the bottom of the first by starting pitcher Cam Sievers, but it could have been a bigger inning that started when Johnny Kunz led off the with a double to left center field; he was thrown out at third trying to stretch it into a triple.

Alton also made three errors in the game, which isn’t a good recipe.

“When you’re one of the last eight teams left, everybody’s darn good and it usually comes down to who makes the least mistakes or has timely hitting,” Alton manager Doug Booten said. “We had some miscues, our catcher (Hayden Schepers) got hurt. Jerald (Downs) came in and did a pretty good job. … There’s eight good teams there. You’ve got to play flawless.”

It was a precursor of things to come with leaving runners on base, including twice with a runner at third and less than two outs, early-inning errors that led to a pair of unearned runs and Danville (24-10), which will advance to Friday’s winner’s bracket game at noon to face Wheaton Post 76, which was beaten by Galesburg 13-0 in Wednesday’s second state tourney game.

Each team had nine hits, but Alton left eight runners stranded.

“I told them before we started that Danville would play good defense and they will hit and they’ll throw strikes,” Booten said. “If we didn’t do that, I would suspect that it wouldn’t go well, but I said if we can, it’ll come down to who gets the hit at the right time with runners on, and that’s exactly what happened.”

Sievers, who took the loss after working five innings and giving up six hits and five runs (four earned) with three walks and five strikeouts, worked around a first-inning error and helped give himself a lead when Alton scored off starter Liam Parish when Jayce Steinkuehler walked with two outs, moved to second on a Dagan Cordes single to left and scored when Sievers punched a single through the right side for a 1-0 lead in an inning that could have seen Alton plate two or more.

Danville was able to tie it in the top of the second thanks to a pair of miscues, including a throwing error by Sievers on a bunt play that set up the tying run scoring on a wild pitch with one out. Sievers would avoid further damage with back to back strikeouts to leave a runner stranded at third.

But Post 210 would take the lead for good in the third with two runs. Danville would score another in the fourth, another in the fifth and three in the sixth off reliever John Kodros.

Down 3-1, Alton cut the deficit to 3-2 in the home half of the third when Cordes singled down the third base line off the third baseman’s glove to score Kunz and make it 3-2, but Post 126 could not tie or take a lead when it had runners on first and third and one out when on a hit-and-run play, Sievers popped an inside pitch up to second and Cordes was doubled off first to end the inning.

“Nine hits apiece across the box score on both sides, so we’re right there, but the difference was we just didn’t have that timely hit with runners on almost the entire game,” Booten said. “That was kind of the difference, I think.”

Alton again put runners on first and third and one out in the seventh with the game out of reach, looking to make the score more respectable but as was an unfortunate theme, leave those runners stranded.

All nine of Alton’s hits came from the top of its order, with Kunz leading the way with three and Joe Stephan, Cordes and Sievers each collecting two. The Nos. 6-9 spots in the order were a combined 0-for-11 with seven strikeouts.

Sievers could only go five innings after throwing 96 pitches.

“Cam likes to strike out people and goes deep into counts,” Booten said. “There were some calls he thought he should have got, and that really changes things. He didn’t get them and you’ve got to adjust and realize that at some point. He gave us five and that’s kind of what we were expecting.”

Alton now will be fighting for its season in an elimination game on Thursday at 5 p.m. against the Wheaton-Galesburg loser needing to win or its season is over.

“The kids were upbeat about it,” Booten said. “Obviously you don’t want to get there, but we’ve been there before. It’s tough coming out of that loser’s bracket, but we have battled back in the past.”

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DEPARTMENT OF ILLINOIS STATE TOURNAMENT

Aviston Community Park

Wednesday, July 22

Game 1: Danville 8, Alton 2

Game 2: Galesburg13, Wheaton 0

Game 3: Palos Heights vs. Rock Island

Game 4: Rantoul vs. Aviston

Thursday, July 23

Game 5: Alton vs. Loser Game 2, 5 p.m.

Game 6: Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, July 24

Game 7: Danville vs. Winner Game 2, noon

Game 8: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 2:30 p.m.

Game 9: Loser Game 8 vs. Winner Game 5, 5 p.m.

Game 10: Loser Game 7 vs. Winner Game 6, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, July 25

Game 11: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 2:30 p.m.

Game 12: Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 10, 5 p.m.

Game 13: Loser Game 11 vs. Winner Game 12, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, July 26

Game 14: Winner Game 11 vs. Winner Game 13, noon

Game 15 (if necessary): Winner Game 14 vs. Loser Game 14 (if first loss), 2:30 p.m.

* Winner advances to Great Lakes Regional in Lexington, Ky. Aug. 5-9 

July 22, 2026|Updated July 22, 2026 9:21 p.m.