Collinsville Baseball Returns To The Diamond
By Mark Jurgena
It had been just under 23 months since the last game for the Collinsville High baseball team when they took the surface at Fletcher Field on April 12th and the return game was a barnburner. Unfortunately, the Kahoks fell 1-0 to Freeburg on an Eli Hill home run in the top of the 6th inning.
The solo shot ruined an otherwise stellar outing by the Kahok hurler Ryker Cain. Cain scattered six hits in his six innings of work. He struck out five and walked none in the contest.
Collinsville struggled at the plate facing Colin Brueggeman and Will Frerking. The two combined to throw a one-hitter at CHS while striking out nine and walking only one.
The only Kahok hit was a triple that came off the bat of three-hitter Chris Thilman in the fourth. However, he was stranded a third.
Hill and Brueggeman combined for four hits on the day for Freeburg while Cade Smith added two as well.
Two days later CHS hosted Triad. The Knights only scored in three innings but two of those were big innings, including a seven-run seventh, to blow open a 5-4 game and beat the Kahoks 12-4.
Collinsville had seven hits on the day paced by Kyle Moore’s 2-for-3 performance. He also added an RBI.
Rolondo Colon smashed a home run to center field on a 2-2 count to make the score 5-2 in the 5th inning.
In the 6th inning, CHS cut the Triad lead to one when Jackson Parrill led off the inning, advanced to 3rd on a passed ball, and scored on Nick Palmisano’s single.
After advancing to 3rd, Palmisano scored on a sacrifice fly by Logan Fairfield to make it a 5-4 game going into the 7th inning, but CHS would get no closer.
Parrill took the loss on the mound giving up three earned runs in three innings of work to begin the game.
Frank Derner had a late home run and three RBI for Triad.
Brady Twyman had three hits including a double and an RBI. John Rea and Drew Watts each added two hits and two RBI while Alex Peetz added two more RBI for the Knights.
The following day CHS welcomed Belleville Althoff to town and couldn’t quite hold the lead as Althoff scored four times in the final two innings for the victory.
Althoff actually jumped out first with a big four-run 2nd inning however, CHS scored in each of the next four innings to take a 6-5 lead.
Collinsville answered back in the bottom of the 2nd, with a leadoff double by Palmisano and a two-out, run-scoring double from Kyle Moore.
With one out in the third, Kahok Josh Scrum was hit by a pitch which was followed by a Thilman single. With two outs, Palmisano hit a hard ground ball to 3rd and reached on an error to score Scrum and make it a 4-2 game.
Parker Conley got a shutdown inning on the hill in the top of the 4th and CHS responded with a big three-run inning. Brennan Jones singled to start things off while Moore and Fairfield walked to load the bases.
Colon then drove in a run by pulling a ground ball to the right side followed by a fielder’s choice from Scrum. Scrum then stole 2nd and along with Fairfield scored on a single by Conley to knot the game at 5-5.
The locals took the lead in the bottom of the 5th when Nick Graf and Palmisano executed a double steal to take the one-run lead into the sixth.
But Althoff scored four times to make it 9-6.
CHS fought back in the bottom of the 7th with a single by Cain then Jones reached on an error. With two outs, Colon reached on an error scoring Cain to create the final two-run margin.
Colon took the loss on the mound.
Jones had two hits for CHS.
The Kahoks also stole five bases including two by Colon.
On Saturday, April 17th they traveled east to take on Highland in a doubleheader. The Bulldogs swept a pair of games from CHS.
In game one, Collinsville jumped on top with a run in the first but Highland used two big innings to subdue the Kahoks 12-2 in five innings.
CHS manufactured their run in the opening frame as Colon led off with a walk, stole two more bags then scored on an error by the 3rd baseman. However Highland scored three times in the bottom half to take a 3-1 lead.
The game remained scoreless until the 5th when Collinsville plated a run when Ryker Cain tripled on a 1-0 pitch to start the inning. Cain was removed for courtesy runner Trent Moad. With one out, Moad scored on a single by Colon to make it a 3-2 game.
However, Highland threw up a big nine-run bottom half of the inning to invoke the 10-run rule.
Jake Ottensmeier had two hits and two RBI while Blayne Kapp added a triple and three RBI for Highland.
Cain took the loss for Collinsville.
In their final game of the week, Highland pulled out a walk-off victory in the bottom of the 7th to take a 9-8 victory.
Collinsville jumped out to an 8-2 lead after four innings of play.
Scrum started with an infield single and stole 2nd. He moved to 3rd on a fly out by Thilman and scored on a single to left by Parrill.
CHS then put up a big inning in the 2nd. Moore led off with a double and moved to 3rd on a sacrifice by Graf when the ball got away on the play at first, Moore scored for a 2-0 Kahok advantage.
Scrum then doubled to score Graf followed by a single off the bat of Thilman for a 4-0 advantage.
Highland scored two in the bottom half of the inning, but CHS tacked on another big inning in the 4th.
Carter Wagner reached on an error followed by a sacrifice by Chase Counton. Scrum was hit by a pitch to put runners on 1st and 2nd. With two outs Parrill singled to left and scored courtesy runner Fairfield.
After a balk advanced Kahok runners to 2nd and 3rd, Palmisano doubled to left to give CHS a 7-2 advantage. Bryce Lemp then chased him home with a double of his own to give them a six-run advantage.
The Bulldogs scored five in the bottom of the 5th and two in the bottom of the 7th for the win.
Jones was the tough-luck loser on the mound for Collinsville. He threw two innings and gave up seven runs however, zero of those runs were earned.
Parrill ended up with three hits and two RBI for CHS.
