The St. Pius X baseball team had not played in 10 days, and head coach Jerry Woods said the Lancers predictably looked rusty in a 10-0 loss to Park Hills Central on April 4.
“We haven’t been able to see live pitching. It’s not good when you don’t play,” Woods said. “They pitched to contact and got ahead in the count and they made some good plays defensively and we didn’t.”
The game against the Rebels kicked off the first of three scheduled home games in three days as the weather-weary baseball season tries to assume some sort of normalcy. The Lancers downed Brentwood 15-5 on Thursday (April 5) and improved to 5-2 with a 4-3 victory over Ste. Genevieve in eight innings.
Woods said none of the games that have been to weather this spring have been cancelled and he expects to make most, if not all of them up.
Before the loss to Park Hills Central, the Lancers had won three games in a row, including a 4-0 win over Saxony Lutheran in Jackson on March 26. Three St. Pius pitchers – Eli Dale, Tyler Hedtkamp and Jeremy Isenman – combined to one-hit the Crusaders. Isenman fanned six batters and earned the win.
Isenman started against the Rebels and threw 10 pitches to retire them in order in the first inning. Isenman wasn’t as sharp in the second inning and Woods yanked him in the third after he reached his limit of 45 pitches.
Leadoff batter Dustin Burch was hitting over .600 before the game against Park Hills Central. Three of Burch’s eight hits were doubles and he led the team with four stolen bases. He was 0 for 4 against the Rebels and struck out twice.
“That line drive to the outfield was a quality at-bat,” Woods said of Burch’s last plate appearance of the game.
Burch, Dale, Brendan Weatherholt and Zander Parson had two hits each against Ste. Gen. Hedtkamp provided the game-winning hit in the bottom of the eighth. Dale was the winning pitcher after Isenman pitched three shutout innings, recording seven strikeouts and no hits before leaving due to a pitch count limit. Hedtkamp pitched two shutout innings as well.
The Lancers have two Jefferson County Activities Association small-schools games this week. They played Crystal City on Tuesday after the Leader deadline and St. Vincent today (Thursday).
Blackcats, Hornets finally get to play
Soggy fields caused by incessant March rainfall kept Crystal City and Herculaneum from being able to complete a JCAA small-schools game until last week.
The Blackcats finally took the field April 4 at Maplewood-Richmond Heights and won 16-2.
The next day, the Hornets played their first game of the season at home against Herculaneum with the Blackcats coming away with a 4-1 victory in a well-played game on both sides. Crystal City had plenty of chances to score more but left the bases loaded in the fifth inning and stranded two more in the final two frames.
“We had a lot of missed opportunities with a lot of guys left on base,” Crystal City head coach Ricardo Pastrana said. “(Crystal City senior pitcher) Chris Eisenbeis did a good job of coming in and shutting them down.”
Because most of their teams’ practices have been inside gymnasiums, Pastrana and Herculaneum head coach Zac Bone were both eager to see how their teams would respond to real-game situations. Pastrana said the Hornets had six games cancelled and only three have been rescheduled so far.
The Blackcats sketched out a run off of Crystal City starting pitcher Blake Eisenbeis in the first inning. Senior Gavin Turley began the game with a bunt single and eventually scored by stealing second, reaching third on a wild pitch and then stepping on home plate after Eisenbeis walked Dalton Cook with the bases loaded.
Hunter Bassin, one of seven freshmen on the Hornets’ varsity, reached first safely after an outfield error. Bassin stole second and reached third on a ground out, but was thrown out at home on a 1-3-2 double play started by Herky pitcher Drake Byers, who spun 4 2/3 innings and allowed just one hit.
“Drake was pretty good today,” Bone said. “He would tell you he’s capable of being sharper, particularly with the secondary stuff. His fastball command was pretty good when he was in the strike zone he was able to be down. We got ourselves into some deep counts. But good job for him to come back in those tough situations.”
The Blackcats extended their lead to 3-0 when junior Trevor Smith doubled with one out, Turley drew a walk and both scored on Duncan’s two-run double. In the first two games, Duncan was on fire in the batter’s box and on the basepaths, going 4 for 5 with five RBIs and five stolen bases.
“He’s just a really solid baseball player,” Bone said of Duncan. “We did enough on offense to get it going (against Crystal City).”
Byers retired the first two Hornets in the fifth, but then walked the bases loaded. Duncan relieved Byers and induced Blake Eisenbeis to ground out to second base.
Cook took over on the mound for the Blackcats in the final two innings. Freshman Julian Rivera drew a one-out walk and junior Collin Wilkerson laced a double, moving Wilkerson to third. Cook’s errant pick-off throw to second base allowed Rivera to score for a 3-1 Herky lead.
Chris Eisenbeis relieved his cousin in the third and pitched the rest of the way. He walked Duncan to start the seventh. Duncan scored on a ground out to make it 4-1.
Cook issued a walk and struck out two Hornets in a scoreless bottom of the seventh.
“I thought both of the Eisenbeis kids were good for them on the mound,” Bone said. “Chris was excellent and did a good job of finding both halves of the plate with a fastball and breaking ball. He did a good job of neutralizing our lineup there.”
In their win over the Blue Devils, the Blackcats pounded out 11 hits, including home runs by Duncan and senior Zach Phillips. Byers and freshman Bryce Hall each had two hits and all nine Herky batters reached base safely at least twice.
“I liked how we extended some innings and rallies,” Bone said. “We put some good at-bats together up and down the lineup.”
Senior Donovan Schaeffer was the winning pitcher against Maplewood after throwing four innings and allowing just one hit. Bone said Schaeffer did a good job of filling up the strike zone.
“He was throwing two or three pitches for strikes,” Bone said. “He fields his position excellently. He has a lot of confidence in himself and is a strong presence on the mound. He gave us a good start.”
Tigers go on three-game tear
It had been two solid weeks since the Festus baseball team got on the diamond for a game, but the Tigers (4-3) made up for the break in the schedule because of incessant rain with three wins in two days.
On Friday at Jefferson, the game time temperature was 39 degrees and the wind was howling out to left field. But it was dry, so the Tigers and Blue Jays went at it.
Senior Jake Leitner took advantage of the wind blowing out to left in the first inning when he turned on Jefferson pitcher John Weik’s offering for a two-run home run as the Tigers led 5-0 after their half of the first inning.
Jefferson responded with two runs in the bottom of the first, but Festus scored nine runs in the third and won 14-2 in five innings. Leitner had a three-run double in the third and finished with five RBIs.
“(Festus) Coach (Jeff Montgomery) gave me a hit-and-run sign and (Weik) gave me a good pitch and I made a good swing on it,” Leitner said. “The wind was blowing pretty well and it went out.”
Montgomery said he likes what he sees out of Leitner.
“He’s got good instincts and good quick hands,” Montgomery said. “He’s dangerous and he proved that today.”
Brennan Pryor, Matt Rosen and Chase Cole all scored two runs against the Blue Jays (3-3) and Pryor had two hits.
Right-hander Blake Holland was the winning pitcher for Festus. Holland hurled all five innings and struck out six batters.
“Blake pitched a great game and we had a notion he was capable of doing that,” Montgomery said. “He proved himself today.”
The Tigers hosted North County and Troy Buchanan on Saturday at West City Park and won both games.
In the first game against the Raiders, the Tigers trailed 6-3 going into the sixth inning. They scored four runs and held on for a 7-6 victory. Pryor was 2-for-4 with two runs scored, while Eddie Martin was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Caleb Hyde had a pair of runs driven in. Leitner and Charlie Pratt combined to allow 11 Raiders’ hits and seven strikeouts with Pratt getting the win.
Festus, which competes in Class 4, also had to come back to beat Troy, a Class 5 school, in the second game. Trailing 2-0 into the bottom of the third, the Tigers plated seven runs in the third and two more in the fourth in a 9-2 victory. Cole (three hits) and Leitner and Rosen (each two hits) were the offensive leaders for the Tigers. Pitchers Zach Baisch (four innings) and Ryan Reando (three) held a potent Troy lineup to four hits.
As long as the weather holds up, Festus was to start to make up for lost time this week with games against Lafayette (Monday), De Soto (Tuesday), Perryville today (Thursday) and Mehlville (Friday).