Baseball: Spring Valley loses to Illinois, knocked out of Central Region Tournament

The Spring Valley Senior League baseball team’s run in the Central Region Tournament ended with a 10-9 loss to Illinois on Tuesday at Washington Park in Peru.

Spring Valley struck first in a back-and-forth game with three runs in the top of the first inning.

Jaxson Pinter hit a sacrifice fly, Braden Curran had an RBI single and Logan Philhower scored on an error in the first.

Illinois, which is represented by two-time defending champion Burbank, scored one run in the bottom of the first then took the lead with three runs in the second.

Spring Valley went ahead 5-4 in the top of the third only to see Illinois score two in the bottom half for a 6-5 lead.

In the fourth, Spring Valley scored twice to take a 7-6 lead, but Illinois tied it with a run in the bottom half.

After Spring Valley scored a run in the top of the sixth to go ahead 8-7, Illinois scored three in the bottom half and held on to win.

Spring Valley scored a run in the seventh on a two-out single by Johnathon Stunkel, but the next batter grounded out to end the game.

Layten Gerdes went 4 for 4 with a run and an RBI, Stunkel finished 3 for 4 with a run and an RBI, Philhower was 2 for 3 with two runs and two RBIs, and Braden Curran finished 2 for 4 with two runs and an RBI.

Gerdes started on the mound and threw four innings, allowing seven runs (five earned) on four hits with five strikeouts and six walks.

Stunkel threw the final two innings, giving up three earned runs on five hits with three strikeouts and one walk.

Illinois advances to play Missouri in an elimination game at 1 p.m. Wednesday. Missouri beat Kentucky 8-2 on Tuesday.

Also Wednesday, Michigan and Iowa play at 10 a.m. with a berth in Thursday’s title game on the line.