It would be hard to find better high school pitching than what I’ve seen the last two months in Jefferson County. It’s definitely been the year of the pitcher.
Just look at the scores, especially among the Jefferson County Activities Association large-schools. Those teams meet each other twice each season in a home-and-home series. When the conference went to this format several years ago, the idea was to keep teams from saving their ace pitcher for all the conference games. Now the race for the title requires two good arms.
Defending large-schools champion Festus, winners of four consecutive district championships, played De Soto and Hillsboro four times this year, going 2-2. The composite score for all four of those games was 5-0. The Dragons played three straight conference games between May 2 and May 9 and they were all decided by shutout.
It’s not just that there are so many good pitchers in the county, but I’ve never seen this many superb lefthanders in one season. The Tigers threw lanky southpaw Cale Schaumburg at De Soto in the first game of their series. Dragon righthander Brendan Young matched Schaumburg pitch-for-pitch for seven innings before Festus prevailed 1-0. In game two, lefty Blake Coleman turned in a masterful performance in a 1-0 shutout that kept Festus from repeating as lone conference champs. The opposing hurler that day was lefty Jackson Smith, who’s probably the most heavily-recruited baseball player in the county.
So many times the breaks go against De Soto when they play Festus and Hillsboro in any sport. But on a magnificent afternoon before a large crowd on both sides, the Dragons came out on top.
“It’s Festus,” Coleman said afterward. “We don’t like Festus.”
I’m always curious what these finely-tuned athletes do after a big win. Coleman had one thing on his mind: “Go out to dinner.” I imagined him at the Texas Roadhouse in Festus, eating those warm, fluffy rolls and butter, laughing it up with friends and family as he recounted his effort.
I can’t help being romantic about baseball. My favorite movie about the sport is “Field of Dreams.” I scoff when people say it’s not a sports movie.
Hillsboro beat De Soto 7-5 and 7-6 in their two games. The Hawks beat the Tigers 1-0 and lost 2-0. All of those games were in April. Hillsboro clinched at least a tie for the conference title after beating Windsor 1-0 in 10 innings on May 9. Hunter Grewe and Cash Linderer combined to pitch 10 scoreless innings. Owl hurler Cole Scott was just as good, striking out seven in six and 2/3 innings. I’ve had Windsor’s rival coaches tell me how good Scott is. On a team that’s 8-17, Scott’s record is 1-5 but his ERA is below 3.00.
“Everybody has two or three solid arms throughout the conference and that makes it tough on hitters,” De Soto head coach Tyler Beers said.
“Cole Scott is really good; he hung a zero on us,” Hillsboro head coach Matt Thompson said. “The pitching in this conference right now is next-level. We’ve got potentially an (NCAA Division I) guy in Jackson Marks. We’ve seen these kinds of pitchers come through before, but as a whole the pitching here is at an all-time high.”
“Festus has Smith and Schaumburg,” Grewe said. “De Soto has three really good arms. In our district (Class 5 District 1) you can’t hold anyone down, no matter the seeding. You can’t relax on anyone.”
The pitching boom includes the northern half of the county as well. Seckman freshman lefty Cory Hilzinger is 6-0 with an ERA of 1.59 in 48 1/3 innings. Hilzinger isn’t your classic fireballing strikeout machine, but he’s pitched fewer than six innings only once in his eight starts this season.
Fox senior righty Andrew Bendler beat the Jaguars in his head-to-head meeting with Hilzinger in March. Bendler is 6-1 and hasn’t allowed a run in six of his eight starts.
Now that the district tournaments are upon us, I can’t wait to see some of these matchups again. De Soto, Festus and Hillsboro are all in Class 5 District 1 at Bonne Terre. Fox, Seckman and Northwest are in Class 6 District 1 at Kirkwood. The Lions have lost nine games in a row, but senior Aidan Amsden is 2-2 with a 1.80 ERA. Amsden hasn’t gotten a lot of help from the defense behind him.
St. Pius X and Jefferson, no longer conference rivals, will square off in the Class 3 District 3 semifinals Monday in Park Hills. Senior righthander Brennan Ervin could start for the Lancers, although head coach Ed Moreno said Monday it was too early to tell. In his last start on Saturday at Cape Girardeau Central, Ervin threw a complete game, but the Tigers walked off with a 2-1 win. Ervin is averaging almost two strikeouts per inning.
So the postseason in all spring sports is underway. County track and field athletes in Classes 1-3 competed in districts Saturday and are poised for great accomplishments at the state meet in Jefferson City. I’ll need to pay close attention to the medal stand. Classes 4-5 embark on their postseason journey this week.
I’m about to wrap up my ninth school year covering sports in Jefferson County. I had the same job in the St. Charles area for 20 years. These next three weeks will be the most exciting and rewarding for me and the athletes I write about. Good luck to you all.