By: Andrés Tejeda

CLINTON, Iowa - The Clinton LumberKings (3-3) were bested by the Alton River Dragons (4-1) 6-2 at NelsonCorp Field Monday night.

Clinton's starter Brady Schiesl made his first start and appearance of the 2023 season. Schiesl earned the loss in his four innings of work where he allowed four hits, three runs, all earned, one walk and a home run while striking out three batters.

The Alton River Dragons scored in the top of the first inning, the first team this year to score before the LumberKings, as the 'Kings have scored first in every game prior to Monday night.

Alton's Dominic Decker, the second batter of the inning, would hit a solo shot into the Lumber Lounge in right field to get the scoring started for the River Dragons in the top of the first inning.

Alton's would score on a controversial call at the plate in the top of the second inning. Eli Hoerner would attempt a stolen base at second but would be caught stealing by Brandon Vlcko. As Hoerner was tagged out at second, Bryer Arview, who was the runner at third base, would attempt to score at home. Initially the home plate umpire waved off the run as the inning was over.

Alton's manager, Richard Scott, would debate the call which would later result in an overturning of the waved off run resulting in a 2-0 lead over Clinton.

The LumberKings would score two runs to answer the fiasco in the previous half inning with an RBI triple by Max Holy and a Connor Giusti RBI double to tie the game at the end of two innings. 

Alton would score four more runs in the game with a dropped third strike wild pitch in the top of the third, an RBI single by Brayden Caskey in the top of the fifth, an RBI walk in the top of the sixth and finally an RBI ground out by Erik Broekemieier to solidify the 6-2 victory.

Tyler Stern and Kieran Bailey would enter the game from the pen with Bailey shutting down the River Dragons in the last two and a thirds inning that he pitched. Bailey allowed no hits, no runs, one walk and struck out five batters.

The LumberKings are off on Tuesday and will hit the road to begin a 4-game road trip in three different cities. The first stop of the road trip will be in Alton for a 1-game series at 6:35 p.m. then Clinton will travel to O'Fallon, MO for a 2-game series against the O'Fallon Hoots before wrapping up the road trip in Peru, IL against the Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp for a 1-game series before returning home on Sunday.