The number one ranked Edwardsville Tigers baseball team faced some of their toughest competition last night when they faced off against Bryan Hudson and the Alton Redbirds. Hudson is a top MLB prospect, headed either to Mizzou or the majors next year. He has a 10-1 record, a 0.40 ERA, and 148 strikeouts over 64.1 innings. He throws a nasty curve ball and has great velocity. But last night, it was the Tiger’s time. Daniel Lloyd pitched an outstanding game and led the Tigers to a 5-2 victory in the championship game of the Class 4A Edwardsville Regionals. The biggest crowd on hand since 1998 (over 1,500 fans) packed Tom Pile field and was treated to quite a game. This is the third time Edwardsville has beaten Alton this year, including a prior game on April 2 where Hudson recorded his only previous loss of the season.
Edwardsville put up two runs in the fourth, started by a walk to Collin Clayton. A sacrifice bunt by Fahd Shakeel put EHS up 2-0. In the fifth, Bailey Zimmer led off with a single and an intentional walk to Jordan Hovey eventually loaded the bases. Hudson struck out the next batter but a seemingly routine ground ball to the shortstop by Aaron Jackson almost hit Hovey and resulted in two throwing errors for Alton, allowing all three runners to score and pushing Edwardsville’s lead to 5-0. Alton scored two runs off Lloyd in the sixth but that’s all they would get off the senior right hander who allowed only three hits over 6.1 innings, striking out seven and walking only three.
Next up for the Tigers is O’Fallon in the semifinals of the Illinois Wesleyan Sectional. The game is Wednesday in Alton. The O’Fallon Panthers are 28-9 on the season and reached the sectional by defeating Belleville East 10-0 behind a no-hitter by Brad Harrison. The Tigers have faced O’Fallon twice this year, winning both matchups.
