Billy Hurst | For The Telegraph
Billy Hurst | For The Telegraph
GODFREY — Jacob Kanallakan will go down as the first Redbird to execute as sacrifice bunt at the new baseball field at Alton High. He will prefer the status earned from his next at-bat.
Kanallakan sent a 3-1 pitch over the fence in the deepest part of the park for a walk-off home run to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning and beat the Collinsville Kahoks 2-1 in a Southwestern Conference baseball game on Tuesday.
“I wasn’t thinking home run, but I got 3-1 so I knew I was going to get a good pitch to hit and I put a good swing on it,” said Kanallakan, a senior whose only previous home run from 224 career at-bats came as a sophomore. “It felt good, but I didn’t think it was going for a home run.”
Kanallakan did not see the drive clear the fence. “I just heard everyone going nuts,” he said. “So I went nuts.”
The victory was the Redbirds’ fourth straight in the Southwestern Conference and improves their record to 11-4 and 4-1 in the SWC. Collinsville, which had its winning streak halted at four straight, is 9-8 and 2-3 in the league.
“It was a good high school baseball game,” Collinsville coach Pete Trapp said. “You’ve got to give (Alton) credit. They did a little bit more than we did to win the game.”
Pitching commanded the spotlight with Alton’s Jacob St. Peters and Collinsville’s Parker Marchbanks each deserving of a win. Marchbanks, a lefty who came in with a 2-2 record and 2.10 ERA, gave two runs on five hits and one walk while striking out four to take the loss.
But St. Peters, coming off a complete-game 4-1 win over Edwardsville a week earlier, improved 3-0 while limiting the Kahoks to one run on three hits, two walks and six strikeouts.
“I’ve heard words like deceptive,” Alton coach Todd Haug said of St. Peters’ delivery. “At this point, I would just say he’s a mature high school baseball player that can throw multiple pitches for strikes and he won’t back down from anybody.”
Alton took a 1-0 lead to the seventh inning when Brayden Arnold hit his third home run of the season to draw the Kahoks even at 1-1.
“I gave up the home run in what we thought would be a bad home-run hitting baseball park,” St. Peters said of the pitching-friendly dimensions at AHS. “I just got really mad about it. (The Kahoks) just started chirpin’ and did their little screaming. But I just stayed in with myself and tried to pitch to contact and do what I had to do.”
After yielding a walk after the homer, St. Peters retired the next two Kahoks to set up the dramatic blast from Kanallakan. “To hit one over in left-center to walk-off in a home opener,” St. Peters said, “is just crazy.”
The victory kept Alton in a four-way tie for the lead in the SWC with Edwardsville, O’Fallon and Belleville West also at 4-1. For the Kahoks, it was the third well-pitched defeat in the SWC, joining losses to Edwardsville (3-0) and Belleville West (2-1).
“You know what though, that’s just part of baseball,” Trapp said. “At the same time, those three losses have all come on the road, so hopefully we’ll have a little more luck at our own place.”
Alton played a flawless game in the field, with catcher Aaron Bonnell making a spectacular diving catch of a foul ball directly behind the plate on a failed sacrifice bunt after a leadoff walk in the fifth inning.
It was a Kahoks miscue that enabled Alton to take a 1-0 lead in the third inning when the Redbirds baserunner on third was slow to tag, but still scored when the Kahoks outfielder threw to second base instead of home.
“It was probably a mistake on their half not tagging up right away,” Trapp said. “And it was a mistake on our half not throwing to the right guy. Next thing you know, they’re up 1-0. It hurts, but it’s part of the game. We have to be a little better with that.”
ALTON 2, COLLINSVILLE 1
Collinsville 000 000 1 — 1 3 0
Alton 001 000 1 — 2 5 0
Collinsville (9-8, 2-3) – Reichert 1-3, Arnold 2-3 HR RBI. LP-Marchbanks IN-6.0 H-5 R-2 ER-2 BB-1 K-4.
Alton (11-4, 4-1) – Ballard 1-3 2B, Kanallakan 1-2 HR RBI. WP-St. Peters IN-7.0 H-3 R-1 ER-1 BB-2 K-6.
