It was a tough night for Mattoon and Charleston in the Class 3A baseball regional tournament. Both teams had their seasons come to an end.
In the first game of the night, the Greenwave battled top-seeded Jacksonville but fell, 6-2. The Crimsons scored a run in the first inning. Joe Reif tripled on the first pitch of the game and scored on a sacrifice fly by Nolan Peters. Mattoon responded with two runs in the third. Brayden Hackett singled with one out. Matt Miller drew a walk. Max Wetzel drove in both runners with a double, giving the Greenwave a 2-1 lead after three. Jacksonville scored twice in the fourth. Bentley Lagergren hit a sac fly to right and Cy Kershaw drove in a run with a fielder’s choice. The Crimsons added on with two runs in the fifth and one more in the sixth. Hackett reached base three times for Mattoon with two singles and a walk. Wetzel finished 2-3 with a single, double, and two runs batted in. Jacksonville’s 6-2 victory puts them in the championship game on Saturday vs. Highland.
In the second game at Mattoon High School, Highland upset the Charleston Trojans, 4-3. The Bulldogs jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. The Trojans got one run back in the bottom half when Alex Matheny drove in Ty Helton with a sacrifice fly to center. Charleston took a 3-2 lead in the third on run-scoring singles by Wyatt Gordon and Russell Applegate. Highland tied the game in the fifth inning. It stayed 3-3 until the top of the seventh. With one out, Tyler Mehrtens hit a triple into the left-center field gap. He would later score on a wild pitch to give the Bulldogs a 4-3 advantage. In the bottom of the seventh, Rohen Walters singled to start the inning Charleston. Ty Helton drew a walk. However, Nolan Houchins was able to work out of trouble on the mound with a strikeout, a fielder’s choice, and groundout to short. Houchins worked 5.1 innings of scoreless relief to earn the win for Highland.
Both broadcasts are in the podcasts tab here on our website.
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