Tanner Houck overcame a dangerous first inning Thursday, and Alex Caputo singled home the winning runs in the seventh to send Collinsville to a 3-2 come-from-behind victory at Alton.

Tanner Houck / Photo by Roger Starkey

The first three Alton batters singled, two with opposite field line drives and the third via a bunt. Houck almost escaped the inning without allowing a run when he induced two infield ground balls.

Alton clean-up hitter Matt Hopkins bounced a ball to first basemen Nick Chance, who went home for the force out. Drake Hampton followed with a groundball to short, but the Kahoks (8-2, 2-1 Southwestern Conference) could not turn the double-play, giving Alton (9-5, 1-2 SWC) a 1-0 lead. Houck retired the next batter on a fly ball to left.

CHS Head Coach Pete Trapp said Houck showed a lot of grit.

“To have the bases loaded and nobody out, and they only get one run across, that’s a young man showing some toughness,” Trapp said.

Houck settled into a groove over the final six innings. The 6-foot-5 right-hander mixed in his slider and curveball, to go along with a 91 mph fastball, to strike out 10, walk none and allow only three additional hits.

The Redbirds reached Houck for an unearned run in the fourth when he hit Hopkins leading off the inning. Hopkins then swiped second and took third when the throw bounced into center field. Two batters later, Clint Cress’ grounder to second gave Alton a 2-0 lead.

Alton lefty Bryan Hudson was lights-out over the first five innings. The junior struck out 11 Kahoks, issued only one walk and did not allow a hit.

Trapp took responsibility for this team not hitting early Thursday.

“I’ll take blame, we just had bad at bats,” Trapp said. “As the game went on, we learned, we made our adjustments. That’s the difference between winning and losing games for us a lot of times, we made the adjustments that we needed to.”

Collinsville scored a run in the sixth when Zach Mathes pushed an RBI infield single to the second basemen, scoring Aaron Peskar. CHS had three hits in the inning, their first three of the game. Two Kahoks were cut down trying to steal third in the inning.

Houck allowed a two-out opposite field single in the bottom of the sixth, but struck out the side. Of Alton’s six hits, four went to the opposite field and one was a bunt.

With one out in the top of the seventh, Houck hit a spinning ball off the end of the bat towards Hampton, who had been moved to first base from third, to start the inning, for defensive purpose. In a play that invoked memories of Bill Buckner in the 1986 World Series, the ball scooted between Hampton’s legs, somehow dodging his glove, allowing Houck to reach safely.

Kyle Reeves was inserted as a pinch hitter and he promptly hit what may have been a double-play ball, but the second baseman played the ball off his hip, allowing the ball to skip over his glove. Houck advanced to third on the play and Reeves trailed him into second.

Hudson’s 0-2 pitch to Caputo, who followed Reeves, found too much of the plate and the Kahoks’ third basemen laced a single up the middle to score the tying and winning run.

First baseman Chance made a diving stop with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, before calmly getting to his feet, picking up the baseball and stepping on first to complete Collinsville’s improbable victory.

Trapp said the win was a team effort.

“I’m proud of our whole team,” Trapp said. “They found a way to win.”

The Kahoks travel to Pekin for a Saturday doubleheader against the Pekin High School Dragons. The first game is at 11 a.m.