Haley: “The kids had a tremendous season and battled until the end.”
By FRED KRONER
One game doesn’t make a season, but one game can end a season.
The St. Joseph-Ogden baseball team learned that reality on Monday (June 14), dropping a 4-1 decision to the state’s top-ranked Class 2A team, Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin in the Decatur super-sectional.
“The kids had a tremendous season and battled until the end,” SJ-O coach Josh Haley said. “We came up a little short, but that loss won’t define this group; a great group of kids who have a lot to be proud of.”
The Spartans carried a 21-game winning streak into the super-sectional and fell to an opponent which now has a 26-game winning streak and an overall record of 33-1.
SJ-O’s final record (33-2) represents the second-most single-season wins. The school’s 2016 team won 35 games. The 2015 squad also won 33 games.
The Spartans’ starting lineup at the super-sectional featured five juniors, three seniors and one sophomore.
University of Illinois-bound pitcher Crayton Burnett, Isaiah Immke and Zach Martinie were the senior starters. The team’s other seniors were John Ehmen, Xander Rieches and Jackson Rydell.
Haley called the group “a great group of seniors that left a mark on the program and community.”
Burnett continued his season-long penchant for throwing strikes. He walked no one and struck out seven in his complete-game, seven-inning performance against the Cyclones in the super-sectional.
For the year, Burnett issued four walks in 13 appearances covering 69 2/3 innings. In that span, he struck out 133 batters and threw 76 percent of his pitches for strikes.
He concluded the year with a 10-1 won-loss record.
Sacred Heart-Griffin put up solo runs in the second and fourth innings. SJ-O cut the deficit in half in the fifth inning when Hayden Brazelton drove in Coby Miller.
The Spartans yielded two more runs in the top of the seventh inning.
For the year, SJ-O outscored its opponents, 295-75.
Immke and Altenbaumer ended the spring tied for the team-lead in hitting. Each had final batting averages of .389, based on 37 hits in 95 official at-bats.
The team’s composite batting average was .304 and six regulars finished above the .300 mark.
Others besides Altenbaumer and Immke were: Brazelton (.333), Burnett (.324), Andrew Beyers (.311) and Miller (.305).
Against Sacred Heart-Griffin, all four of the Spartans’ hits were singles. For the season, more than one-fourth of the team’s hits (26.7 percent) went for extra bases.
Altenbaumer and Immke shared the team-lead in doubles, with 10 apiece. Sophomore Ty Pence had the most triples (two).
Sharing the home run lead were Burnett and Miller, with four apiece.
Altenbaumer (35) and Burnett (33) were the team-leaders in runs batted in. Altenbaumer and Miller had the most two-out RBI (15 apiece).
Brazelton finished with the most runs scored (43), followed by Miller (34). Miller was hit by a pitch the most times (13).
The stolen base leaders were Brazelton (17), Beyers (15) and Keaton Nolan (15).
Burnett (24) and Brazelton (22) drew the most walks. Altenbaumer was the toughest Spartan to strikeout, fanning seven times in 122 plate appearances.
Sixteen different Spartans collected hits for the season. Only Beyers and Burnett played in all 36 of the SJ-O games.
Burnett compiled the team’s top earned run average (0.73). Pence was next (0.84), followed by Altenbaumer (0.91) and Brazelton (1.12).
Altenbaumer was second to Burnett in strikeouts (95) and innings pitched (53 2/3).
Altenbaumer had a 9-0 record, Martinie was 5-0, Brazelton was 4-0 and Rieches was 2-0.
As a team, SJ-O pitched combined for 380 strikeouts and 74 walks in 245 innings.
Ten different squad members spent time on the mound this season and seven started at least one game.
