The Monmouth Legion Post 136 baseball team’s season came to an end in the loser’s bracket semi-finals of the District 14 Tournament on Saturday morning. Monmouth fell to a red-hot Rock Island Post 200 7-1. Monmouth had beaten Rock Island 3-2 in the first round last Wednesday night. Since that loss, Rock Island has ran off five straight wins by a combined margin of 59-27 and will play for the Division 3 Tournament championship, and the state tournament berth that comes with it, tonight at 5:00 against Limestone. On Saturday, Monmouth fell behind 1-0 in bottom of the 1st but would tied things up at 1-all with a run in the top of the 3rd on a Jordon Roller rbi groundout, scoring Nick Corman. That’s all the runs Monmouth would get off Rock Island starter Anthony Barrios. Barrios went all seven innings, throwing just 94 pitches, giving up five hits and one earned run. He struck out five and walked only one. No Monmouth hitter had more than one hit. Rock Island’s 3-4 hitters Chase Vanderginst and Bryce Trask combined to go 5-6 with four rbis and five runs scored. Vanderginst banged out a pair of doubles. Nate Bigger got the loss on the mound for Monmouth but held a potent Rock Island offense to just five hits and three earned runs in his four innings of work. Monmouth ends the season at (10-16). Rock Island knocked off East Moline 7-5 in Saturday’s loser bracket finals on Saturday afternoon, that sent them to the Division 3 Tournament Final Four on Sunday, where they earned two more wins to put themselves in the Division 3 championship against (24-5) Limestone today at 5:00 at Sherrard High School. Should Limestone lose that game, a winner-take-all game will take place at 7:15. Rock Island is now (19-9-1) on the season.
In the District 15 Tournament in Canton, Oneida ended their season with two straight losses on Friday. Abingdon fell one game short of a Division 3 Tournament berth. They knocked off Oneida 2-1 on Friday, lost to Limestone 11-8 on Saturday afternoon and then fell to Peoria in the loser’s bracket final on Saturday night.
