The Festus American Legion senior baseball club started its 2017 season with a bang.
Actually, a lot of bangs.
Post 253 scored 58 runs in its first three games – all wins.
After torching Ballwin for 21 runs and racking up 17 more against Jackson, Festus plated 10 runs in the first inning Sunday against De Soto SMCI en route to a 20-1 victory at Jefferson College.
“We’re having good at-bats, seeing fastballs early in the counts and trying to do damage with our swings,” said Festus infielder Collin Mann, who had two doubles and a single in his first three at-bats Sunday.
De Soto fell to 0-5 this season. Manager Jeff Russell said his young club won’t be complete until shortstop Vito Orlando joins the team this week. Orlando had an extended high school season playing for Lutheran South, which lost 5-3 to Aurora in the Class 4 state championship game on Friday.
After playing games Thursday and Friday, De Soto’s pitching staff was depleted against Festus because Legion teams this summer are observing the same pitch count regulations as high school teams.
Shaun Brooks started for De Soto on Sunday and didn’t make it out of the first inning. Blain Prater and Cameron Beck led off with walks, then Mann doubled and Zac Meyer, Sean McDowell, Zach Richardson, Brennan Pryor and Jaden Courtois all had singles. Beck and Meyer each had two-run singles in their second at-bats of the inning. When the dust cleared, Post 253 led 10-0.
“We’ve scored a bunch of runs against some pretty good arms,” Festus manager Zac Bone said. “Collin Mann has had a big first three games. He’s an impact bat in the middle of our lineup. Blain Prater hit some balls hard today but didn’t have a lot to show for it. Cameron Beck plays very good defense and swings the bat well.”
Andrew Douglas, a key member of the Festus Tigers district championship team this spring, pitched six shutout innings against De Soto and was relieved in the seventh by Prater, who allowed a two-out RBI double by Brett Gibbs for De Soto’s lone run.
“Andrew was outstanding,” Bone said. “It starts on the mound on every level. He threw a ton of strikes and threw his fastball when he wanted to.”
Andrew DeRousse pitched the next two and one-third innings for De Soto, and after pitching out of trouble in the second, he couldn’t solve the hot Festus bats in the third. Beck walked and scored and Mann singled and scored to start a four-run outburst. McDowell singled and scored and Richardson walked and scored to make it 14-0.
Ben Kelam, Nick Schmidt and Nick Carter, the starting catcher, each pitched an inning for De Soto. Russell said Schmidt looked good on the mound.
Post 253 reached 20 runs for the second time in three games in the sixth when Meyer doubled and scored, McDowell singled and scored, Pryor was hit by a pitch and scored and Courtois singled and scored.
“Zac Meyer hammered the baseball today,” Bone said.
It was the second time this season De Soto has been down by 10 runs early in a game. Bonne Terre put them in that hole last week against starting pitcher Nick Warren.
“We made somewhat of a game of it,” Russell said. “Bonne Terre has a good team, and Festus is a tremendous offensive club.”
Festus and De Soto travel to Cape Girardeau Thursday to begin play in the Charleston Tournament, which wraps up Saturday in Charleston.
Read this season's American Legion previews for De Soto, Festus and Rock Memorial in this week's Leader newspaper.