Arcola High Power swept by second place Buckley; Biefeldt throw no-hitter in first game
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By Mike Monahan
BUCKLEY – The Arcola High Power Eastern Illinois Baseball League team trailed second place Buckley just 2-0 after three and a half innings. However, Buckley, the second place team in the five team conference, sent 18 batters to the plate in a 14 run fourth inning. The Dutch Masters went on to win 16-0 in a game called after four and a half innings due to the run rule.
Buckley’s Alex Biefeldt, a 2025 graduate of Reed-Custer who recently completed his freshman year at Kankakee Community College, threw a no-hitter. He threw 59 pitches with 43 for strikes and had nine strikeouts. Only a Dutch Mater error in the first inning with one out prevented a perfect game. The only High Power base runner was Trevor Froehling.
Buckley’s Ty Cribbett, a 2024 graduate of Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley and just finished his second year at Millikin University, was 3-for-4 with a double and five runs batted in to lead the Dutch Masters, 9-2.
Arcola southpaw John Wright suffered the loss and Brody Somers pitched in relief.
Both games were played at Schwiwe Field.
Buckley flexed its strength in the second game as well, starting off with a bang on the day after July 4 with a seven run first. The Dutch Masters went on to win 18-0 in four and a half innings.
Blake Lishka got the first hit for Arcola in either game with a single in the first inning of the second game with one out. However, a strikeout and a fly out ended the threat. In the third with one out Wright walked and Braydon Strack, who played for Cerro Gordo/Bement last spring, singled to right. But a pop-up to the pitcher and a line out to the second baseman ended that threat. In the fifth Arcola had runners on first and second again, but this time with two outs as Wright singled and Strack walked. The game ended on a ground out to the first baseman.
The Dutch Masters hit nine doubles, which was half of their hits. Charles Cambridge (a 2025 graduate of Paxon-Buckley-Loda, who is playing at Kankakee Community College) was 2-for-3 with a double and four runs batted in to lead Buckley, while Tuff Elson (a Bismark-Henning graduate who played at Danville Area Community College and now is at Lindsey Wilson University in Columbia, Ky.) was 2-for-4 with two doubles and three runs batted in.
Arcola, 0-12, looks for its first win Sunday in a doubleheader vs. the Paxton Swedes, who are in third place. The games are at Arcola’s Kelly Moore Memorial Park at Edwin Dale Buxton Field at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.
Game one
Arcola 000 00–0-0-2
Buckley 101 (14)x–16-13-1
Losing pitcher: John Wright 3 ⅓ innings, 10 hits, 11 runs, 9 earned, 4 walks, 0 strikeouts; relief: Brody Somers ⅔ inning, 3 hits, 5 runs, 2 earned, 1 walk, 0 strikeouts
ARCOLA: none
Game two
Arcola 000 00–0-3-2
Buckley 715 5x–18-13-0
Losing pitcher: Cannon Tchosik 2 innings, 6 hits, 12 runs, 11 earned, 7 walks, 0 strikeouts; relief: Braydon Strack 2 innings, 7 hits, 6 runs, 5 earned, 0 strikeouts, 3 walks
ARCOLA: Wright 1-for-1; Blake Leishka 1-for-3; Strack 1-for-2