TILTON — A bunch of little things can quickly add up very quickly.
For the Danville Post 210 Speakers this past weekend, one mistake here and one mistake there resulted in four straight losses in the TB24 Memorial Tournament after a come-from-behind win over Crawfordsville in the tournament opener.
Danville lost to Alton 1-0, lost to Rock Island 3-1 and Terre Haute 6-5 on Saturday before falling to Terre Haute again on Sunday 9-3 in the tournament semifinals.
“It wasn’t a completely lost weekend,’’ said Danville catcher Jaydon Riggs, who went 3-for-13 with just a run scored in five tournament games. “There were a lot of good teams and a lot of good competition.
“The downfall for us were the little mistakes early in the tournament and early in the games. I think we beat ourselves most of the time.’’
In all four tournament losses, Danville saw its opponent score first. As the Post 210 pitchers allowed just 13 earned runs in five games, an average of 2.6 per game.
“All of our arms were nice for us this weekend. We just didn’t swing it great,’’ said Danville manager Brent Hart, whose team batted .227 this weekend with nine extra-base hits. “If we can figure out our bats, we will be fine.’’
So, besides the fact that the TB24 Tournament, uses wooden bats exclusively, what else is wrong with the Speakers (12-10-1 overall) scoring runs?
“I think there is a little second-guessing that’s going on when they are at the plate,’’ Hart said. “I don’t think the thought process is always there.’’
Riggs believes he and his team had better approaches at the plate on Sunday, but the results just weren’t there.
“We know what we need to work on and even though, we lost this game, there were a lot of positives to take from it,’’ he said. “We just hit in some bad luck at times and it seemed like everything they hit found a hole. Those are things that you can’t control as a baseball player.’’
The first inning of Sunday’s semifinals proved that point.
Danville’s Cruz Dubois, who had two hits on Sunday, led off with a single to center. Jordan Johnson followed with a sacrifice bunt but Riggs popped out and Charles Cambridge hard grounder up the middle was fielded by Renn Harper for the third out.
In the bottom half of the frame, Terre Haute scores five runs on three run-scoring hits by Ty Stultz, winning pitcher Jackson Pierce and Izaak Osborne. All three hits were basically within one foot of the foul-line.
“If those three balls are 6-12 inches the other way, they are foul,’’ Hart said. “(Chase) Harrison pitched really, really well but they got us with those perfectly placed hits.’’
Both Hart and Riggs noted that Post 210 came back with a solo homer by Caden Keleminic in the second and two-run double by Cole Miller in the fifth to pull within 5-3, but that was as close as they would get.
“We didn’t hang our heads and our body language was great all game,’’ Riggs said. “This was a good weekend to prepare us for the postseason. We’ve seen some of the best teams in the state and we competed with them.
“The only reason we lost was because of us — we beat ourselves. If we play our ‘A’ game, I don’t think there is anyone that can beat us.’’
But, getting to that ‘A’ game level is going to be the key for the Speakers, who play at Rantoul tonight and then head to Crawfordsville for their final regular-season tournament this weekend.
“We have to keep our mistakes to a minimum because we can’t outhit our mistakes,’’ Hart said. “Honestly, the good thing is that it’s not one big mistake that we have to correct. There is just a bunch of tiny mistakes that we need to get corrected.’’
Alton defeated Rock Island 4-3 in the other semifinal on Sunday and then Terre Haute won the 2025 TB24 Memorial Tournament title with a 7-5 victory over Alton.
Saturday’s scores
At Gruber Park
Rock Island 3, Danville Post 210 Speakers 1
Rock Island 012 000 — 3 5 0
Danville 000 010 — 1 7 3
WP — Aidan Terronez. LP — Easton Barney. Two or more hits — Danville: Jaydon Riggs 3, Cole Miller 2. Rock Island: Aidan Brokaw 2; Danville: Riggs, Miller. . 2B — Rock Island: Alex Churchill. RBIs — Rock Island: Will Bowers, Jackson Bennett, Cael Kuster. Danville: Brandt Hobick.
At Gruber Park
Terre Haute 6, Danville Post 210 Speakers 5
Danville 003 011 — 5 6 1
Terre Haute 100 41x — 6 6 1
WP — Gage Sullivan. LP — Easton Bolin. Two or more hits — Danville: Zack Russell 2. Terre Haute: Parker Weir 2, Ty Stultz 2. 2B — Terre Haute: Weir, Stultz. 3B — Danville: Cole Miller. HR — Charles Cambridge. RBIs — Danville: Cambridge 3, Russell. Terre Haute: Weir 3, Isaak Osborne, Tristan Deel.
Sunday’s score
Terre Haute 9, Danville Post 210 Speakers 3
Danville 010 020 — 3 6 2
Terre Haute 500 031 — 9 11 2
WP — Jackson Pierce. LP — Chase Harrison. Two or more hits — Danville: Cruz Dubois 2. Terre Haute: Renn Harper 3, Pierce 2, Ty Stultz 2. 2B — Danville: Cole Miller. Terre Haute: Harper 2, Isaak Osborne. HR — Danville: Caden Keleminic. RBIs — Danville: Miller 2, Keleminic. Terre Haute: Pierce 2, Stultz 2, Osborne 2, Swaim, Dom Barnhart, Tristan Deel.
Records — Danville Post 210 Speakers 12-10-1 overall.