By Drake Skleba
Senior Writer

Thursday April 10 Games

Southwestern Conference
No.16 Edwardsville 4, Belleville East 3
Edwardsville (10-1; 3-0) slipped past Belleville East (3-4; 1-2) at Tom Pile Field. The Tigers won the game in the fifth with a lot of help from the Lancer defense which committed three errors in the fateful inning. The Tigers tied the game on one of those Lancer miscues and Aaron Jackson’s sac-fly plated junior Matthew Zielonko, who reached on a bunt single. Junior RHP Daniel Lloyd slammed the door on the Lancers, firing four scoreless innings in relief to pick up the win. Lloyd allowed one hit.

No. 17 O’Fallon 8, Granite City 6
O’Fallon (10-1; 3-0) outslugged Granite City behind senior RHP Blake Deatheridge. Deatheridge pitched five innings on the mound to improve to 5-0 on the season. At the plate, Blake had three singles and two RBI. Senior Dean Gerros added two hits and two RBI, while sophomore Bradley Snyder was 3-for-3 with an RBI. Sophomore LHP Bradley Harrison fired two scoreless innings in relief with three strikeouts to nail down the save for Deatheridge. Harrison had three hits, including a double and an RBI at the plate. On Tuesday, Edwardsville-O’Fallon will square off at Blazier Park in O’Fallon with first place in the SWC on the line. Yours Truly will have all of the action at beautiful Blazier Park covered for you.

No.11 Carmel 9, Palatine 8
Carmel (11-2-1) scored six times in the bottom of the seventh and won in walk-off fashion in Mundelein. Trailing the Pirates 8-3 in the bottom of the seventh, sophomore Cooper Johnson walked and fellow sophomore Joe Santoro. hammered a two-run bomb to right to bring the Corsairs within 8-5. Senior Matt Skarzynski scored on a wild pitch to make it 8-6 and University of Illinois-bound  Quintin Sefcik reached on a huge Palatine error that allowed the two tying runs to score. Later in the inning, that Santoro fellow again ripped a shot past the Pirate SS into left field, as Sefcik streaked across the plate with the Corsair game-winner sending Corsair fans dancing into the middle of Route 176.

Roundup from Thursday's action-packed games include reports on: Rock Falls, Rochester, Bloomington Central Catholic, Pontiac, Mt. Vernon, Crete-Monee, Minooka, Plainfield North, Plainfield East, Oswego East, Nashville, Edwardsville, O'Fallon, Collinsville, Belleville West, Aurora Christian, Aurora Central Catholic, St. Francis, Montini, Bartlett, St. Rita, Mount Carmel, Carmel, Glenbrook South, St. Joseph-Ogden, Cary-Grove, Prospect, Niles Notre Dame, Nazareth, Teutopolis, Triad, Benet, Morris, Lincoln-Way North, Lincoln-Way West, Lincoln-Way East and more ...