Elgin loses at state Legion tourney

Now it is keep winning or go home for Elgin in the American Legion baseball state tournament.

Elgin (27-10) saw its eight-game winning streak end with a 10-4 loss to Rock Island (32-8) on Thursday afternoon in the second day of the double-elimination tournament at Jim Sundberg Field in Galesburg.

“They’re a good team and every time we tried to respond or if we got a couple of runs they came back,” said Elgin coach Bob Todd, who only had 12 available players Thursday. “We’d put a couple of guys on and they would turn a great defensive play.

“They kind of played our kind of ball against us. They’re a good hitting team.”

Elgin plays an elimination game at noon today against Mattoon (21-16), which needed 14 innings to pull off a wild 18-16 win which eliminated Galesburg (38-14).

The Elgin-Mattoon winner comes back to play a second game today while the loser’s season comes to an end.

Elgin seemed to be fighting an uphill battle even before the game started. Todd said the team’s routine was disrupted when there was some confusion on the time his team and Rock Island were supposed to take batting practice and then there was a lengthy wait for the first game to end.

Rock Island scored 4 runs in the fifth inning to take a 6-1 lead and Elgin starter Sam Klein came out of the game with what Todd said was elbow discomfort.

Drew Stover, who went 4-for-5 and is now 8-for-11 in the tourney, homered for the second straight game in the fourth and had an RBI single in the fifth. Nick Holze drove in a run and Jordan Torres had an RBI double to cut the deficit to 6-4 in the sixth.

Torres also shut down Rock Island’s offense in the sixth and seventh but a 3-run eighth broke it open to 9-4.

“We came out lethargic and just didn’t play our kind of ball,” said Todd, whose team was outhit 15-10. “No matter what I tried I couldn’t get them motivated.

“There were a couple of spurts where the motivation and enthusiasm came back but we tried to sustain it like we did the last seven or eight games and we couldn’t do it.”

Todd has No. 2 starter Ryan Burke and No. 4 Tyler Rydin ready to go today. But his big concern with the short bench and stifling heat is fatigue.

“They’re tired,” he said. “It’s exhaustion and with some of the kids it’s starting to show.”