By Fred Kroner
Hayden Brazelton drove in Isaiah Immke with the tie-breaking run in the bottom of the fourth inning on Monday (May 31) as St. Joseph-Ogden topped Chillicothe IVC 2-1 in an Illini Prairie Conference baseball game.
Brazelton and Immke each had two hits.They accounted for all but one of the SJ-O hits. The team’s fifth hit was a single by sophomore Ty Pence, who received a scholarship offer from the University of Illinois for basketball on Wednesday (June 2).
Winning pitcher Tyler Altenbaumer, who was hit by a pitch, scored the first SJ-O run in the opening inning to create the 1-1 tie which stood until the fourth inning.
Coby Miller delivered the Spartans’ first RBI.
Altenbaumer (7-0) pitched the first 4 2/3 innings, yielding three hits and no walks while striking out eight.
He was followed to the mound by Pence (1 1/3 innings, one walk and one strikeout) and Crayton Burnett (1 inning, one walk and one strikeout).
On Tuesday (June 1), Immke, Miller and Keaton Nolan all collected three hits as SJ-O posted a 10-inning 13-7 triumph over IVC in Chillicothe.
The Spartans held a 5-0 lead entering the bottom of the fourth inning but needed the extra-inning outburst to secure the six-run victory.
Altenbaumer drove in three runs and Burnett drew three walks. Altenbaumer, Immke, Miller, Nolan and Pence all scored two runs.
Nolan swiped two bases.
Brazelton was the first of four pitchers employed by the Spartans. He worked five innings, walked four and struck out seven.
Following Brazelton to the hill were Avian Gerdes, Xander Rieches and Jackson Rydell.
Rieches (2-0) was the pitcher of record after 3 1/3 hitless and scoreless innings. He walked three and fanned three. Rydell pitched a scoreless bottom of the 10th inning.
In Illini Prairie Conference games, the conference-champion Spartans are 14-0.
SJ-O (29-2) returns to action on Friday with a Class 2A regional semifinal game against eighth-seeded Marshall, which shut out ninth-seeded Georgetown-Ridge Farm 10-0 on Wednesday (June 2). SJ-O is the regional’s No. 1 seed.
The Spartans are working on a 16-game winning streak.
