The Waterloo Buds, Millstadt Green Machine and Valmeyer Lakers each won two of three recent games as the Mon-Clair League baseball season enters the dog days of summer.

The Buds (4-6), lost 5-3 in a Friday night road game against the Belleville Rockies. Former Waterloo High School standout Nate Phillips pitched well for the Buds, surrendering just one earned run. Mark Mueller picked up the pitching victory for the Rockies.

On Sunday, Waterloo won twice at home against Belleville. 

In game one, the bats came alive for the Buds in a 10-2 victory. Leading the offensive onslaught for Waterloo was outfielder Markus Isaiah, who had a double and triple with multiple RBIs. TJ Williams had two doubles and multiple RBIs. Eric Creech, Ryan Bell and Nate Albrecht also contributed to the hit parade.

Two former WHS pitchers, Erik Kaiser and Nolan Veto, combined to shut down the Rockies. 

Game two was a slugfest, with the Buds emerging victorious by the score of 12-11. Waterloo’s offense was led by Hudson Blank, George Schneider, former Bulldogs Brayden Hays, Garrett Schlecht and Albrecht. 

“Additionally, we had  unbelievable individual defensive plays from Eric Creech and Markus Isaiah that were ESPN Sportscenter worthy,” Buds manager Barry Grant said.

Waterloo takes on the league-leading Millstadt Green Machine at home this Friday night, then travels Saturday to Fairview Heights for a doubleheader against the St. Louis Spikes. On Sunday, Waterloo plays two against the Godfrey Hamm’s.

Millstadt (12-2) lost a close one against Godfrey last Wednesday, 7-6. Godfrey plated the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh inning. 

On Sunday, the Green Machine won two games aT Godfrey. 

In game one, Brian Lupa went 2-for-3 with both Cal and Joey Kossina contributing a hit and two RBIs each  for Millstadt in the 4-2 victory. Evan Spears was the winning pitcher.

In game two, Millstadt won 14-4. Lupa went 4-for-5 with two RBIs, Tony Kossina went 4-for-5 with four runs, and Karl Peters went 3-for-4 with five RBIs.

Following THE Friday showdown with Waterloo, Millstadt plays Sunday in Fairview Heights against the St. Louis Spikes.

Lupa leads Millstadt in hitting this season at .500 with eight RBIs. Peters is hitting .484 with 16 RBIs.

The top pitchers for the Green Machine include Jakob Koehn (2-0, 0.00 ERA in 11 and two-thirds innings), Josh Dima (1-0, 1.17 ERA in 12 innings), Spears (2-0, 2.83 ERA in 17 and one-third innings) and Andrew Yancik (1-1, 2.85 ERA in 12 and one-third innings).

Valmeyer (9-6) won 5-2 over the Spikes in Fairview Heights on Friday, getting another complete game from lefty starter Jacob Thompson. He struck out eight on the night. Evan Davis went 2-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs. Matt Helm went 3-for-4 and also homered for the Lakers.

On Sunday, Valmeyer split a pair with the Spikes. 

In game one, the Lakers lost to the tune of 4-1. Tim Reinholz had two hits for Valmeyer.

In game two, the Lakers got a combined three-hit shutout from pitchers Brady Biffar, Henry Litman and Luke Gasser in a 2-0 win. Trevor Davis went 2-for-3 for Valmeyer. Both runs were scored in the first inning.

Valmeyer plays Saturday at Godfrey before playing a Sunday doubleheader at Belleville. 

Thompson is 3-0 on the mound this season with a 1.67 ERA in 21 innings.

Helm leads Valmeyer’s offense at .436 with 14 RBIs. Kameron Hanvey is hitting .408 with 14 runs.