Tuesday, August 7, 2007 11:02 PM CDT
Despite setbacks, Post 88 primed
AMERICAN LEGION STATE TOURNAMENT
BY BRIAN NIELSEN Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
MATTOON – After losing twice in the district tournament Mattoon Post 88 lost an ace pitcher.
The team with the losing record is facing a Danville Post 210 team to whom it has lost four times in four meetings during the season.
Unlike the other five teams that won district and division tournaments, Post 88 knew when handing out uniforms in the spring it had an automatic berth as the host of the American Legion baseball state tournament this week at Grimes Field.
Heading into today’s 7 p.m. first-round game, Post 88 has reasons to think it can do more than just bring home crowds to a couple of games in this double-elimination tournament that is to crown a champion and Great Lakes Regional qualifier on Saturday.
“I think we can compete with anybody there if we play to our potential,” pitcher/first baseman/outfielder Ryan Bradley said.
Yeah, that could be dismissed as idle chatter had Post 88 not had its moments this season.
Those would include last month’s 5-4 win in the Champaign Wooden Bat Tournament over Arlington Heights Post 208, the defending state champion back in this year’s state tourney.
Matt Miller pitched a four-hitter for Post 88 in that game.
Danville did not see Miller on the mound in either of its two doubleheader sweeps over Post 88 during the season but can expect the 6-foot-6 right-hander there today.
Rather than losing any sleep this week pondering whether to start Miller, the 2007 Charleston graduate headed to Eastern Illinois on a baseball scholarship, or Blake Fairchild, the 2006 Mattoon grad who redshirted the past spring at Illinois, Fairchild suffered an injury working out at Illinois since Post 88’s elimination from district play.
The loss of Fairchild, who had a 1.87 ERA, 47 strikeouts and 22 walks in 45 innings while standing 3-3 this legion season, obviously hurts Post 88’s pitching depth as well as the loss of his bat and first base availability.
But as for an opening round pitcher, Post 88 does not have to apologize for putting Miller on the mound with his 5-0 record and 1.29 ERA in his first season with the team after concentrating on basketball the previous summer.
“It was between Blake and Matt for the start,” Post 88 coach Steve Metzger said. “This just made it easier for me.”
This gives Miller some quick limelight.
“I’m excited,” he said. “I’m just ready to pitch again.”
Post 88 should be rested having not played for a couple of weeks since the district.
“I think I’ll be stronger,” Miller said.
Whether the tourney host is more rested from not playing in the division or rusty from sitting out while others played through last weekend remains to be seen.
“We’ll find out,” Metzger said. “We’ve been hitting a lot. We’ve hit more than we did during the regular season.”
The work has been to prove this automatic state participant can play with the state tourney qualifiers despite its 23-27 record.
“Records never really bothered me,” Metzger said. “At one time we were 7-20. Now we’re 23-27, that makes us what, 16-7, since then? We could say we are 16-7.
“Hey, it took us five tries to beat Terre Haute.”
Post 88 eventually did get a win over last year’s national runner-up Terre Haute this year and now it gets a fifth chance against a Danville team that has won the first four meetings.
“They’re beatable,” Bradley said. “We really haven’t played our best any of the four times we’ve played them.”
The last time it played at its home field, this Post 88 team with a losing record won four straight games before losing the championship game of its Firecracker Classic to Terre Haute.
That tournament was the highlight of Post 88’s season until now when it again gets an even bigger stage with a state tourney audience.
“I don’t think we really need to earn respect,” Bradley said. “We can show how good we are in the tournament.”
Danville coach Adam Decker does not doubt a Post 88 program that beat his team in the first round of the 2002 state tournament at Danville when Mattoon finished second and in the 2003 Fourth Division on its way to a state championship.
“I have a ton of respect for Mattoon baseball going back to when I played,” said Decker, who pitched for Danville’s legion team in 1994. “It was always going to be a dogfight against them.
“I know we’ve beaten four times This is a different story. It’s on their home turf and it’s the state tournament.”
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
Mattoon Post 88 (23-27) vs. Danville Post 120 (37-12)
Batter up: 7 p.m. today in third game of American Legion state tournament at Mattoon’s Grimes Field
Radio: WEIU-FM 88.9 Probable Mattoon pitcher: Matt Miller, 5-0, 1.29 ERA, 41 strikeouts, 10 walks in 38 innings
Probable Danville pitcher: Justin Cox, 8-2, 4.42 ERA, 433 strikeouts, 14 walks in 57 innings, or Taylor Dennis, 5-1, 1.56 ERA, 37 strikeouts, 14 walks in 40 1/3 innings
Mattoon hitting leaders: Josh Wilson .444, 12 doubles, six triples, 1 home run, 18 RBIs; Lyle Seaman .377 2 doubles, 3 triples, 0 homers, 20 RBIs; Trevor Buford .344, 9 doubles, 2 triples, 0 homers, 23 RBIs; Ryan Willison .311, 5 doubles, 0 homers 24 RBIs; Lydon Burson .310, 3 doubles, 0 homers, 18 RBIs
Danville hitting leaders: David Worthington .434, 20 doubles, 5 triples, 12 home runs, 53 RBIs; Chase Sanford .411, 11 doubles, 5 triples, 2 homers, 41 RBIs; Jake Jurczak .392, 11 doubles, 4 triples, 0 homers, 26 RBIs; Ryan Scrogham .345, 14 doubles, 2 triples, 2 homers, 33 RBIs; Jordan Barney .336, 8 doubles, 2 triples, 8 doubles, 35 RBIs; Avion Forthenberry .335, 6 doubles, 2 triples, 1 homer, 27 RBIs
On deck: The winner of this game advances to a 7 p.m. game with the loser to play at noon in the double-elimination tournament.
TOURNEY SCHEDULE
At Peterson Park’s Grimes Field
Today
Game 1: St. Charles (22-16) vs. Belleville (43-6), noon
Game 2: Rock Island (30-9) vs. Arlington (38-9), 3:30 p.m.
Game 3: Danville (37-12) vs. Mattoon (23-27), 7 p.m.
Thursday
Game 4: Losers of games 2 and 3, noon
Game 5: Winners of games 1 and 2, 3:30 p.m.
Game 6: Loser of game 1 vs. winner of game 3, 7 p.m.
Friday
Game 7: Winner of game 4 vs. loser of game 5, noon
Game 8: Winners of games 5 and 6, 3:30 p.m.
Game 9: Loser of game 6 if it has only one loss vs. winner of game 7, if necessary, 7 p.m.;
Or Game 10: Winner of game 7 vs. loser of game 8 if it has only one loss, if necessary, 7 p.m.
Saturday
Game 10: Winner of game 7 vs. loser of game 8 if it has only one loss, if necessary and if not played on Friday, noon
Game 11: Winner of game 8 vs. winner of game 9 or 10, noon or 3 p.m.
Game 12: If necessary (if two remaining teams have only one loss), 3:30 p.m.
Champion advances to the Aug. 16-20 Great Lakes Regional at Menominee, Mich., to play for a berth in the Aug. 24-28 American Legion World Series in Bartlesville, Okla.
STATE TOURNEY UMPIRES
George Desmond, Danville, 24 years including independent professional Heartland League and Frontier League
Don King, East Peoria, 22 years including Ohio Valley Conference, Mid-Continent Conference, 2000 NCAA Regional
Dave Logan, Decatur; 20 years professional, college, American Legion
Steve Jones, Mount Zion, 12 years junior college and NCAA Division III college baseball, limited Division I college, 26 years Illinois High School Associational
Pete McGinnis, East Peoria, 16 years college, 2007 college playoffs, 2005 IHSA state finals
Lou Parker, Divernon, 20 years college
Mark Winters, Springfield, 11 years in minor leagues including four years in Triple-A; began working college ball in 2005 including Big 12 and Big Ten Conferences; selected for Olympic qualifying games in Cuba in 2006
Terry Woolpert, Decatur, 20 years IHSA and college, American Legion state tournament
THINGS TO KNOW
Admission: $5 for adults, $1 for ages 12-and-under each day with no pass-outs to be given; a pass for the entire tournament is $25
Radio: Mattoon Post 88 games to be broadcast on WEIU-FM 88.9
WEB SITE COVERAGE
Check www.jg-tc.com for updates of scores after each game with Player of the Game selection and other notes. Check www.mattoonbaseball.com for scores by inning and postgame statistics.
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