The end of the 2023 season brings a close on three years of Alton River Dragons baseball.  The team’s final record of 20-35 places the team 16th out of 17 teams.  Alton went 9-17 in the first half and 11-18 in the second half.

Erik Broekemeier: He was no Vanilla Ice, Rebecca Black or Baha Men in that he truly wasn’t a “one-hit wonder”.  Erik returned this season and put together a season-long offensive performance. Some of his highlights include

He established a new team record in season RBI (56)

Batted .349, 5 homers and 12 RBI after the sixth inning

Batted .288, 6 homers and 24 RBI as a designated hitter

Hitting a walk-off home run in the season’s final game

End of Season Streaks: A few River Dragons had streaks as the season ends

Chase Bloomer: 7 game hitting streak and 16 game on-base streak

Erik Broekemeier:  7 game hitting streak

Evan Evola:  5 game hitting streak

Eli Hoerner’s Second Half  After missing most of the first half due to injury, Eli was a force in the second half.  As other players got injured, he assumed the leadoff role a spot he would start in for 12 games and the team went 6-6 in those games.

In the second half, Hoerner batted .302 with an astonishing .450 on-base %.  He was walked or hit by a pitch, 23 times in in 27 games.

He was also a perfect 17-17 in stolen base attempts the second half.

Among League Leaders

Erik Broekemeier finishes third in RBI (56) and tied for fourth in homers (10)

Record after Coaching Change

On July 20th the River Dragons took the rare step of making a managerial change during the season. At that time, General Manager Dallas Martz added “interim field manager” to his title.  A triumvirate of assistants including Butch Chapman, Blake Vandiver and Blake Wilson overall various aspects of the dugout.  

Over the final 11 games the team went 5-6, playing at a .454 pace.   They had previously been playing at a .341 pace.

If the team had played at a .454 clip all season that would’ve resulted in 25-30 record.

Gone, Not Forgotten

Dominic Decker – Before he was shut down due to a hand injury, Decker was challenging for the league’s batting title with a legit chance at not only finishing over .400 in average but over .500% in on-base percentage.  His season ended in mid July.

R.J. LaRocco – An injury ended LaRocco’s season only a few days after Decker’s and only a couple games after setting a new team record in doubles with 13

Kyle Athmer – His final game is one of legend for the River Dragons.  On July 7th he took a perfect game into the seventh inning at Danville.  Eventually he and Dimtri Ivetic combined to allow only three hits in a shutout performance and one of the best on the mound in team history.  Athmer was shut down for the summer as he reached an innings limit but not before that.

Fewer Games

The 2023 schedule already featured two fewer games (58 as opposed to 60) and thanks to three cancellations the River Dragons only played 55.  Alton’s July 24th game at Thrillville was cancelled after a Thrillville player’s passing earlier that day.  Games on July 29th and August 5th were rained out an unable to be rescheduled.

Attendance

Crowds at Lloyd Hopkins Field grew in season number three with a franchise best average of 521.  A total of 14,587 came to 27 openings.

This includes a crowd of 897 at the final game on August 4th and a season best 1,037 for the home opener June 2nd.

Grab Some Pine

River Dragons’ pitching established many new franchise marks in terms of strikeouts this season. This includes a new franchise high of 15 strikeouts accomplished in two games. They did it twice at Springfield on June 25th (11 innings) and July 25th (9 innings).

Individually, J.T. Miller struck out 11 at O’Fallon over 5.2 innings on  July 15th setting a new bar for a player.

Walk Off Wins

The River Dragons won two games in the memorable fashion known as the “walk-off”.

Saturday June 3rd:  Tied 4-4 entering the bottom of the ninth vs. O’Fallon,  Diego Murillo reached third base and scored on a R.J. LaRocco single to right.  LaRocco had kept the game tied in the top of the inning when he threw out a runner trying to score with a throw from left field. Alton wins 5-4.

Friday August 4th:  Tied 5-5 entering the bottom of the ninth vs. Cape, Erik Broekemeier launched a no doubt home run over the left field fence for the game winning blast. Alton wins 6-5.

Going the Distance

The following players were in the dugout for not only the first game on June 1st at O’Fallon but also remained all the way through until the rainout on Saturday August 5th at Cape.

Erik Broekemeier, Scott Detweiler , Luke Gasser, Alex Hagen, Lucas Johns, Diego Murillo, Jackson Parrill, Bryce Zupan

First Professional Alum

Jake Bockenstedt, who pitched three games for the River Dragons in June, became the first River Dragons player to sign with a Major League team when he was picked up by the Chicago White Sox in July.  The free agent signee has yet to appear in an affiliated minor league game but when he does, he’ll be the first player in team history to reach that level too.