The Vandalia Jr. High baseball team made history winning its first ever Sectional Championship and notching its spot in the IESA 3A State Tournament with a 9-4 win over Mt. Zion on Saturday. The Vandals quickly opened the scoring in the top of the first inning after the first three batters were hit by pitches to load the bases before Jack Doehring hit a line drive single to right field to bring in one run and a sacrifice fly by Mason Hartlieb scored another for a 2-0 Vandalia lead. After holding Mt. Zion scoreless half of the inning, the Vandals tripled their lead in the top of the second inning. With two outs in the inning, Brooks Bost, Jase Blankenship and J. Doehring hit three straight doubles to drive in three runs and J. Doehring scored on an error as the Vandals held a 6-0 lead. Mt. Zion was able to score their first run in the bottom of the second inning to cut the Vandalia lead down to 6-1, but the Vandals got that run back and added another in the top of the third inning on a single from Case Diekemper that scored a pair of runs to extend the lead to 8-1. Vandalia was held scoreless over the fourth, fifth and sixth innings while Mt. Zion scored one run in the fifth and added on two in the fifth inning as Vandalia’s lead was cut down to 8-4. That was it for Mt. Zion’s scoring in the game as Vandalia added one more run on in the top of the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly by Jaxson Washburn and closed out the 9-4 win. The Vandals are 18-1-1 on the season and will play in the first quarterfinal game of the 3A State Tournament when they face 13-2 Frankfort Hickory Creek at 10:00am on Friday at the Eastside Centre in East Peoria.
Vandalia Offense:
Luke Doehring – 3-4, R
Brooks Bost – 2-4, 2 R, RBI
Jase Blankenship – 1-3, R, RBI
Jack Doehring – 2-3, BB, R, 2 RBI
Mason Hartlieb – 2-2, BB, 2 R, RBI
Bentley Real – 1-4
Jaxson Washburn – 2 R, RBI
Case Diekemper – 1-2, 2 RBI
Drew Buscher – BB
Vandalia Pitching:
Luke Doehring – 4.1 IP, 2 R, 3 H, 5 BB, 7 K
Brooks Bost – 1 IP, 2 R, 1 H, 3 BB, 3 K
Drew Busher – 1.2 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 2 BB, 2 K
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