BENTON — For football players such as Gavin Baldwin, Cole Malawy, Reid Baumgarte and a host of others, playing baseball under the lights probably wasn’t how they figured to be spending a Friday night in early September.

Welcome to 2020.

With the IHSA’s decision to move football to the spring due to the pandemic coupled with losing an entire baseball season last spring, Seth Tate from Benton had an idea–how about a fall baseball league? With a lot of leg work and plenty of interest, the Southern Illinois High School Fall League 2020 was born.

The league is made up of eight teams: Anna-Jonesboro, Benton (varsity and JV), Carbondale, Harrisburg, Nashville, Steeleville, and Williamson County. These teams are not affiliated with the schools, but next May you’ll see these players competing as Wildcats, Rangers, Terriers, Bulldogs, Hornets, and Warriors.

The school teams’ coaches can only be spectators. These teams are led by volunteers like Tate, who has two sons on the Benton team.

The league will wrap up its first week with all eight teams in action Saturday. All games are played at the Benton City Park. The teams will play through the end of October, wrapping up with a College World Series style playoff. For more information about the SIHSFL 2020, check out the league’s website.

As for the game Friday night between Nashville and Benton, Nashville scored one in the sixth and three in the seventh to rally for a 5-3 win. Senior Zach Kempfer hit a two out, two strike, three-run homer in the top of the seventh, and that turned out to be the difference. Baldwin doubled and homered to drive in the other two Nashville runs. He also picked up the win in relief.

Benton jumped out to a 1-0 lead on Jon Tate’s RBI double in the bottom of the first scoring Tyler Chamness. Baldwin’s RBI double tied it in the third. Benton took a 3-1 lead in the fifth on Kempfer’s throwing error that allowed two runs to score. Baldwin hit a solo home run in the sixth to set up Kempfer’s heroics in the seventh.