SATURDAY ROUNDUP: Redbirds sweep Piasa Birds in baseball

The Alton baseball team pulled off a tough doubleheader sweep Saturday afternoon.

The Redbirds blanked Southwestern in a pair of nonconference home games, defeating the Piasa Birds 6-0 in the opener and then 12-0 in five innings.

Dane Mercurio pitched 6.2 innings to earn the Game One victory, striking out five. Jason McAtee hit a solo home run and Evan Bailey homered with two RBIs to lead the team offensively. Cole Lawson had two hits in a losing effort for Southwestern.

In the second game, the Redbirds used a seven-run third inning and piled on 12 runs in the opening three frames to pull out the win. Brent Phelps homered and McAtee hit his second of the day, while Trevor Matifes, Cody Calvert, Corey Schelle and Evan Bailey all contributed two hits. Matifes was 4-for-6 total for the day.

Jared Dooley pitched four shutout innings for the victory as Alton improves to 16-6. Southwestern falls to 18-11.

And despite the doubleheader sweep, Alton coach Scott Harper said the Piasa Birds are a formidable team.

"They're real solid for a Class A team," Harper said of Southwestern. "They'll do all right in the postseason. But our pitchers threw pretty well today."

 Edwardsville Tournament - The Highland Bulldogs bounced back from a tourney-opening loss to Chatham Glenwood on Friday with victories over Joliet (16-6) and Edwardsville (6-4) to win the Tiger Classic round robin.

Highland's Danny Gifford threw a complete-game to beat the Tigers in the tourney finale and earned the Outstanding Pitcher award. The Bulldogs are 21-2.

Edwardsville, which hit 11 homers in three tourney games, beat Glenwood 12-5 earlier Saturday to match Highland's 2-1 tourney record. Highland won the title by a tiebreaker of fewest runs allowed.

Edwardsville junior Dane Opel was named the tourney's Outstanding Offensive player after finishing 8-for-12 with three home runs, one double, six runs and six RBIs. He also pitched two perfect innings of relief against Highland.

Tigers' junior second baseman Zach Maggio was the tourney's Outstanding Defensive player and had two hits and two RBIs in the loss to Highland. Ian Sikes also homered in defeat for Edwardsville.

Against Chatham, Opel hit two homers in a 4-for-4 day for the Tigers, who also got homers from Michael Failoni, Michael Osterburg and Sikes. Chase Carroll got the win.

Edwardsville is 17-7, while Joliet heads back north with a 15-6 record. Chatham is 18-4.

 CM 10-13, Gibault 2-3 - The host Eagles broke out the big bats in sweeping past the 8-18 Hawks and improving their record to 16-7.

Devin Caldwell went 5-for-6 with a pair of doubles, a triple and six RBIs in the doubleheader. Teammate Cody Trosley was 4-for-6 with two triples and two RBIs. Tory Doerr and Caldwell logged the wins.

 Greenfield 9, Palmyra Northwestern 2 - The Tigers made nine runs on dozen hits and scored four times in the fifth to make a romp of it. Justin Goode and Kory Chapman sparked the Tigers by each collecting three hits. They combined for five RBIs.

PREP SOFTBALL

 Southwestern 9, Lebanon 0 - Leslie Davis pitched a four-hit shutout as Southwestern ran its record to 17-3. Katie Trombetta and Sam Boucher each had two hits for the Piasa Birds. They made the most of eight hits at Lebanon.

 Alton fifth at Triad -- The Redbirds improved to 18-8 by going 3-0 on Saturday and taking fifth place in tournament action at Triad High.

Alton opened with a 2-0 win over Trenton Wesclin. Alyssa Mahr's two-run double in the bottom of the sixth inning proved to be the difference in the contest. Freshman Hayley Woszczynski allowed two hits with three walks and eight strikeouts over seven innings to earn the win.

In the next game, AHS used a six-run first inning in battering Freeburg 12-0 in five innings. Stephanie Mormino and Tiffany Brakeville led the Alton charge. Mormino was 3-for-3 with a double and a RBI while Brakeville was 2-for-2 with a double, solo home run and two RBIs. Woszczynski worked the first four innings to earn the win.

Alton then defeated Southwestern Conference rival O'Fallon 11-8 for fifth place.

Bunker Hill, now 8-7, defeated Collinsville 4-3 in the consolation quarterfinals, then lost to O'Fallon.

Jessica Lovejoy provided the winning runs against Collinsville. The Bunker Hill pitcher stroked a two-run double in the fifth inning to erase a 3-2 deficit.

PREP TENNIS

 EA-WR goes 1-1 - The East Alton-Wood River tennis team suffered its first loss of the season, bowing to Alton 5-4 Saturday morning at Moore Park. But the Oilers bounced back to defeat Granite City 7-2 later at Alton High.

Against the Redbirds, EA-WR won only two singles matches before winning two doubles matches. But a loss in the final doubles match of the morning sealed the Oilers' fate in their first loss.

But the Oilers bounced back to beat Granite City, securing the team's 15^th victory of the season and setting a school record for wins in a season.

"It's a good feeling to set that record," said Oilers coach Joe Parmentier, whose team is 15-1. "But that first loss was hard. We had a great opportunity to beat Alton, and we were really hoping for an undefeated season.

"But we came back to beat Granite and the kids were really excited to set that school (wins) record."