Altenbaumer and Brazelton named to Illinois Coaches Association Class 2A all-state first team
By Fred Kroner
Two St. Joseph-Ogden senior baseball players were named to the Illinois Coaches Association Class 2A all-state first team.
Tyler Altenbaumer and Hayden Brazelton were the Spartans who were honored.
Altenbaumer, a right-hander, and Brazelton, a left-hander, were the top pitchers for SJ-O’s 35-3 team.
Altenbaumer was 11-0 with an earned run average of 0.93. He struck out 98 batters in 60 1/3 innings.
Brazelton was 8-1 with an earned run average of 1.88. He struck out 90 batters in 45 innings.
Brazelton was also the top SJ-O hitter, with an average of.536 (67 hits in 125 at-bats). His hits total and season batting average established new school records as did his career batting average of .443. He scored a school-record 74 runs, which ranks third on the all-time IHSA season leaders’ list.
Brazelton also broke the SJ-O record for triples in a season (six) and tied the school mark for home runs in a season (six). His 47 runs batted in are third-best for a single season.
Altenbaumer finished among the Spartans’ all-time leaders in several pitching categories. He stands second in season wins (11) and second in career wins (20) and never suffered a loss in a high school game. He ended third in career ERA (0.86) and fourth in career strikeouts (192).
Altenbaumer batted .388 (45 hits in 116 at-bats) as a senior. He finished fourth at SJ-O for career RBI (77) and fifth for runs scored in a season (44).
Altenbaumer (pitcher) and Brazelton (outfielder) are two of four Spartans selected for first-team honors on the Illini Prairie all-conference team.
They were joined by junior outfielder Charles Voorhees and senior infielder Griffin Roesch.
Earning second-team all-league honors were sophomore infielder Luke Landrus, junior infielder Adam Price and senior catcher Coby Miller.
Versatile senior Andrew Beyers, who played each outfield position, third base and catcher, was accorded honorable mention all-IPC status. He was also SJ-O’s Gold Glove winner with just two errors in 78 chances (.974 fielding average).
