Altamont Lutheran Interparish School baseball has claimed its first IESA Regional Championship in baseball after beating their crosstown opponents Altamont Grade School, 8 to 6, in the Championship Game of the Nokomis 1A Regional that was played in Altamont on Wednesday evening. The AGS Wildcats were able to open the scoring in the top of the first inning when Rhett Burrus doubled and was then brought home to score on an RBI double by Grant Warner for a 1-0 lead. The ALIS Rockets got that run back and tied things up in the bottom half of the inning when Easton Caraway singled to lead off the inning, stole second and then reached third base on a passed ball before Kysson Koester hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Caraway and knot the game up at 1-1. The Wildcats retook the lead in the top of the second inning 2-1 as Bryar Ruholl scored on a wild pitch. The top of the Rockets order struck again in the bottom of the second inning with a one out triple from Caraway bringing in one run and Keaton Davis sacrificing to score Caraway for a 3-2 Rocket lead. The Rockets extended that lead out further in the bottom of the third inning on an RBI single from Henry Alwardt that scored Gentry Sefton and a fielder’s choice from Drew S to bring in Graham M to make it 5-2 ALIS on top of AGS. The Wildcats were held scoreless for the second inning in a row and ALIS went back to work in the bottom of the fourth as Davis scored on a wild pitch and H. Alwardt hit into a fielder’s choice that scored Koester as the Rockets pushed their lead out to 7-2. That lead was further extended to 8-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning on an RBI single from Koester that brought in another run. AGS began to mount a comeback in the top of the sixth inning when Ruholl scored on an RBI groundout by Spencer Lurkins and an RBI single from Burrus scored Hayden Arnold to cut the ALIS lead down to 8-4. An inning later, the Wildcats continued to chip away at the Rocket lead beginning with a leadoff walk from Will Sphar and back to back singles from Jaxon Delaney and Wyatt Laue to load the bases. Sphar scored on a wild pitch and then Ruholl grounded out to score Delaney as the pulled the Wildcats to within two runs, 8-6. However, a popout and a groundout stymied the AGS comeback attempt as the Rockets sealed the win and gave ALIS its first IESA Regional Championship in program history. Altamont Grade School ends their season with a record of 8-5-1 while Altamont Lutheran moves to 12-4 on the season and advances to the Raymond Sectional where they will take on Pawnee (14-2) on Saturday at 11:00am at Raymond Park. The winner of that game will advance to the IESA 1A State Tournament on October 2 at the Eastside Centre in East Peoria.
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