A year ago, spring prep sports evaporated with the rising COVID-19 pandemic. Nine De Soto seniors never took the field for a baseball game. In the first 13 days of the 2021 season, De Soto packed in 11 games, winning eight and scoring an astounding 104 runs. The Dragons rang up Valle Catholic and Montgomery County for 17 runs each in a pair of mercy-rule blowouts March 22 and 27.
De Soto head coach Matt Buechting said it’s hard to think about the talented team that never got a chance to compete together last year. He has six seniors returning in 2021 who were the other pieces to what would have been a formidable 2020 ballclub with all-conference-caliber players at almost every position.
“We felt last season was a chance to take a step up in the conference,” Buechting said. The Dragons compete in the Jefferson County Activities Association large-schools conference with Festus, Hillsboro, Perryville and Windsor. “We didn’t get a chance but we talked with this group and told them they are carrying that forward.”
De Soto also is carrying some historical baggage. The Dragons haven’t had a winning record in conference play since 2010, before the JCAA instituted the large school and small school divisions. And you have to go back a year further than that for their last district championship. De Soto beat North County 2-0 in the 2009 Class 4 District 1 final and ended up third in the Class 4 state tournament; Class 4 was the highest classification in baseball at the time.
Class and district assignments were released by the Missouri State High School Activities Association on March 31 and De Soto is all too familiar with the neighborhood in Class 5 District 1. It includes conference rivals Festus and Hillsboro along with Cape Girardeau Central, Farmington, North County, Notre Dame of Cape Girardeau and Sikeston.
The Dragons already have played two of those schools, knocking off Sikeston 11-6 on March 24 and falling short against North County 5-3 on April 1. The Raiders took advantage of nine De Soto errors; the Dragons have committed 28 on the season.
While Dragon starting pitcher Ethan Sampson didn’t get any help from his defense, North County lefthander Devin Seastrand, a senior, limited De Soto to two Hunter Dill hits. But he also walked five and the Dragons scored twice in the fourth inning to tie the game 3-3.
“A lot (of the loss) had to do with (Seastrand),” Buechting said. “(But) by the fourth or fifth inning, I told one of our assistants we didn’t deserve to win. We had guys make a few mistakes who hadn’t made them all year.”
Dill, an honorable mention on the all-JCAA large-schools team in 2019, plays second base and pitches. Through last week he was hitting a staggering .636 (21 of 33) with 12 runs batted in and a team-leading 10 stolen bases. On the mound, Dill has two saves and was the winning pitcher in a 12-4 win over St. Clair on March 30. He also had four hits in that game, including a home run. Batting lefthanded, Dill has six bunt singles.
“He handles the bat well,” Buechting said.
Buechting said senior center fielder Levi Fischer, also an honorable mention all-conference performer in 2019, is the “voice you hear in practice and in the dugout” this season. Fischer bats cleanup and he and first-baseman Sampson lead the Dragons in home runs (3) and RBIs (17).
Buechting also noted that Fischer’s time in the weight room the last three years has been well spent. “Physically, he loves the weight room and he’s a big, strong guy who loves to run.”
Senior Nick Krodinger has played on the varsity since his freshman year and would have been the everyday shortstop in 2020, as he is now. He has struggled at the plate so far (batting .147), but doesn’t strike out often and Buechting said he’s been a victim of bad luck.
Senior hurler Brycen Kingsland, once considered a potential ace for the Dragons, had elbow surgery last summer and can’t pitch. He’s been cleared to play in the infield, however, and is hitting .287 with seven RBIs.
“He can do multiple things for us,” Buechting said.
Buechting said he believes he has one of the best catchers in the conference in senior Zach Keck, who sat next to the coaches in the dugout as a sophomore and learned the fine art of the backstop. He’s batting a robust .379 with four doubles. Buechting said Keck is also a weight-room lover.
“He does an extremely good job blocking pitches,” the coach said. “He has full reign with our pitching staff. He calls his own game and runs the defense from behind the plate.”
Junior Caleb Coleman is the team’s leadoff batter and a spot-pitcher who also plays center field. He gives the Dragons another lefty at the plate and on the bump and is batting .375 with 10 runs driven in.
Senior Austin Langston is a backup catcher and pinch runner and has been in the program all four years.
“He does a lot of the thankless jobs for us and never complains. He is a true team guy,” Buechting said.
De Soto plays Hillsboro in a home-and-home set today (April 8) and Friday.
Hawks looking to regain championship form
The Hillsboro baseball team is trying to retain the success it had before being shut down last year by a global pandemic.
The program has enjoyed plenty of winning over the years, such as a surprise district championship in 2011 after being seeded dead-last (No. 8) in the district tournament. The Hawks were champions of the Jefferson County Activities Association large-schools division in 2017 and 2019 and won the 2019 Class 5 District 1 title, posting a 14-7 record.
Eight players from that team were poised to defend their championships as seniors in 2020. But COVID-19 had other ideas. All spring sports were shut down last year and those players graduated.
“Most of them would have been key players for us,” said Kevin Lucas, who is in his fifth year as head coach of the Hawks and was the JCAA large-schools coach of the year in 2019. “We looked good going into the season and this year is the complete opposite.”
Through four games, the Hawks are 0-4, but three of those losses were by a combined four runs. St. Clair scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning to beat Hillsboro 9-8 on March 31.
“Things aren’t going our way,” Lucas said. “(In) those three losses we’ve given ourselves a chance to win until the last out. But we’re doing good things and getting better in each game. We’re snake-bit right now. Once we get that first win, things will click for us.”
Lucas said he’s looking to this year’s six seniors to take charge.
“I’ve noticed in four games that usually you have a group of seniors who lead the way and I don’t have to tell them what I want. It’s those little things you don’t think about and it’s showing up right now.”
The seniors are shortstop Noah Shuman, catcher Jase Stewart, center fielder Zach Whaley, outfielder/pitcher Gabe King and pitchers Eli Epley and Micah Cook.
Shuman has committed to Jefferson College for baseball and has hit two home runs this year.
“He stood out last year before the season shut down and he’s playing great shortstop for us,” Lucas said.
Whaley has been finding ways to get on base and Lucas said he might move him up in the batting order. Epley has pitched well in relief, keeping hitters off balance. King is also a relief specialist who Lucas said has kept the Hawks in games. Stewart was brought up for the 2019 district run as a sophomore.
“(Stewart has) been a great leader. He has a presence behind the plate,” Lucas said. “He’s been real vocal with everything.”
Junior Connor Jenkins starts at first base and junior Bailey Heidbreder plays second and pitches. Whaley, King, junior Cruz Valencia and sophomore Austin Romaine are spread out in the outfield.
Romaine, one of the top young football players at Hillsboro, also pitches and is a lefthander. He’s got the size and strength to remind Hawk fans of 2019 graduate and two-sport standout Michael Brewer. Romaine gave up six runs to Parkway Central in the first inning of a 6-4 loss on March 26, but Lucas said he was “lights out” after the rough start. Romaine played select baseball last summer, so he didn’t have the long layoff some other players experienced.
“He’s been putting in a lot of time in two sports,” Lucas said. “He can run it down in the outfield. We use him in all three spots.”
Andrew Chaves, Junior Arnold, Ben Schamburg, Gavin Mahan and Andrew Brody – all juniors – round out the pitching staff. Ten of the 17 players on Hillsboro’s roster are juniors.
“I hope a lot of our players have big years,” Lucas said. “With us not having a season last year I haven’t seen any of these players actually play at the varsity level. I hope that our seniors are able to lead us, but we do have a very good group of juniors and one sophomore.”
Hillsboro once again is in Class 5 District 1, which is packed with tough opponents, including Farmington, North County, the two Cape Girardeau schools (Central and Notre Dame) and Sikeston as well as local rivals De Soto and Festus.
Tigers showing improvement over 2019 performance
Festus started its 2021 baseball season with a 3-5 record as of Monday, playing a schedule similar to what they had in 2019, when the Tigers started 0-6 and finished a disappointing 6-16.
Three Tiger losses last month were by a combined five runs. After beating Lutheran South 7-5 on March 30 – the Lancers won three straight district titles in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and finished second in the state (Class 4) in 2017 – Festus has reason for optimism.
“We played two or three good teams and being 3-4, we’ve learned a lot in the games we didn’t win,” said Festus head coach Jeff Montgomery, in his 13th season at the helm and 26th overall with the program. “We’re learning how to close out games and how to hit in certain situations. We’ve stranded a lot of runners and didn’t put together good at-bats in key spots.”
Two key returnees from 2019 are seniors Collin Reando and Cole Wagner, a second-team all-Jefferson County Activities Association large-schools player two years ago after batting .314 and leading the Tigers with 13 stolen bases. Reando, who played catcher as a sophomore, starts at shortstop and leads the club with a .522 batting average and 12 hits, including a double and a triple. Wagner is hitting .409 with four doubles and three multi-hit games.
In a 10-4 win over Fox on March 24, Reando was 4 for 4 and scored three runs.
“They can both swing it real well. Cole had a monster sophomore year offensively and he and Collin have been hitting well,” Montgomery said. “They are all-conference-type players who will play at the next level.”
Sophomores Tyler Bizzle and Wyatt Huskey and junior Connor McDonald are sharing the catching duties. Bizzle has had the most playing time so far.
The rest of the infield includes seniors Laine Axtetter and Jack Uskiwich and sophomore Ian Brown at first base, senior Aidan Irelan and junior Cameron Ford at second and senior Ethan Carroll and juniors Trent Ellis and Connor Hulsey at third.
Huskey and Ellis double as outfielders. Also patrolling the pasture are sophomores Nate Moore and Jackson Gross.
Brown has a chance to establish himself as the ace of the Tiger pitching staff. He’s fanned 20 batters and allowed only three earned runs in 8 2/3 innings this season and was the winning hurler in the team’s first victory of the season, 6-5 over Parkway South on March 20.
Moore, Hulsey, Axtetter, Gross, Irelan, Carroll, Ford and Ellis comprise the rest of the staff.
The Tigers last won a district title in 2017. After competing in Class 4 District 2 for years, Festus was moved up to Class 5 this spring after the Missouri State High School Activities Association added a sixth class for baseball.
The Tigers are in District 1 with JCAA rivals De Soto and Hillsboro, along with Cape Girardeau Central, Farmington, North County, Cape Girardeau Notre Dame and Sikeston.
Offense lagging behind stellar pitching
With only one exception, the Windsor baseball team has specialized in close games so far this spring.
Four of their first six contests were decided by one run – two wins and two losses. The other two games were a 2-0 loss to Fox and an 11-0 blowout win over Duchesne.
In the midst of all that, the Owls won the eight-team St. Charles West Tournament, edging St. Dominic 2-1 on March 24.
Randy Green is in his ninth season coaching Windsor and his first as head coach, succeeding the veteran Jeff Young, who piloted the Owls for 17 years. The frustrating aspect of Windsor’s 3-3 start is its pitching and defense have been district-champion caliber, while the offense is struggling for traction.
“We haven’t been able to blow anybody away. We’ve got to learn how to hit better,” Green said. “It’s been brutal. It’s got a direct correlation to not playing last year. We think we’re better hitters, we’re just not there yet.
“We need that caveman mentality: see ball, hit ball. We need to get back to the simple things.”
In their most recent game, a 3-2 loss to Cape Girardeau Central in Imperial on March 31, the Owls had the tying run aboard in the seventh inning when a line drive turned into a game-ending double play. Senior Derek Williams started on the mound for Windsor and didn’t issue a walk, struck out four and allowed five hits.
“Derek was pitching fine. But he was telling us that his arm wasn’t feeling it,” Green said. “His velocity was down. If we hit in that game, we win it. We had a couple guys on third base and ended innings with a strikeout.”
A conference MVP quarterback in football, Williams is just about as accomplished on the diamond. He was a first-team all-conference outfielder and was Windsor’s closer as a sophomore in 2019. This spring he plays left field when he’s not pitching and leads the team in batting (.412) and runs batted in (6). In the win over St. Dominic, Williams stole second and third base on consecutive pitches.
“He throws hard and can overwhelm guys at times,” Green said. “He’s got speed and the instincts to be a good outfielder.”
In that tournament title game, senior shortstop Nolan Estopare drove in the winning run. Green called Estopare, who had a triple against Cape Central, the backbone of the team. Estopare played plenty of American Legion baseball last summer for Rock Memorial Post 283.
“He works harder than anybody and he’s always trying to improve,” Green said. “He always puts the ball in play.”
Senior pitcher Gavin Kinworthy has yet to earn a win, but he’s allowed only two earned runs in 11 innings. Kinworthy and Fox pitcher Clay Street staged a pitcher’s duel that was decided on a two-run homer by Fox senior Brock Inman, who like Williams is perhaps better known as a standout quarterback in football.
Kinworthy’s other start was a 2-1 loss to Eureka in the season-opener.
“Gavin’s been fantastic on the mound,” Green said.
Sophomores Max Hartmann and Greg West give Windsor four quality starting pitchers. Green said all four could be considered aces because they all show high velocity and good movement. The Owls’ relief corps consists primarily of seniors Eric Streicher and brothers Truman Ward and Hunter Ward, juniors Chase Goins, Andrew Tanner, Brett Dickinson and Ryan Wieberg and sophomore Austin Happel.
The Wards have helped Rock Memorial become more competitive the last few summers. Hunter is hitting .286 and has a team-best .545 on-base percentage. He follows in a long line of stalwart Windsor catchers like Cooper Thomas, Ryan Harris and Alex Trenary.
“He finds a way to get on base. He’s got a bunch of walks,” Green said.
Windsor has moved up from Class 4 to Class 5 after a sixth class was added for baseball postseason play this year. The Owls landed in District 2 with Lutheran South, which beat them in the Class 4 District 3 championship in 2019 and is 3-0 against Windsor in district finals since 2013. Mehlville, Pacific, Parkway West, Rockwood Summit, St. Mary’s and Webster Groves are also in District 2.
Windsor visits Seckman on Saturday for a doubleheader against the Jaguars and Farmington.