It was over before it began.
Kirkwood Post 156 had spent all of its pitching to make it to the championship game of the District 10 double-elimination tournament, and Eureka Post 177 still had their ace in the hole, Cole Edmiston.
That result was a predictable 22-3 shellacking and a district title for Eureka Monday night at Bridgeton Municipal Athletic Complex.
Edmiston has started all three games against Kirkwood this season, pitching a complete game the first time in a 7-6 win, pitching the lion’s share of the second game in their 8-1 win, and now pitching 3 2/3 no-hit innings.
And that was no coincidence, according to Eureka manager Noah Baker.
“We knew they were going to be a threat the first game, it was a very close game,” Baker said. “Cole has been a bulldog for us for two years, and I have confidence in him to throw a good game. After the second game, Cole gave me all the confidence in the world to save him for this championship game. I knew we’d face these guys; they’re a good team. And Cole made them look like less of a good team.”
Edmiston doesn’t mind being the team workhorse.
“I just come out and have fun; the results happen,” he said. “I just love this team.”
Edmiston faced 13 batters, striking out seven, giving up two walks, and one earned run all on only 48 pitches. For his part, the ace hurler comes into most games with the same plan, “throw it in the zone, and make them work.”
Grant Beiermann relieved Edmiston in the fourth, pitching the last third of the fourth inning and first third of the fifth inning. Beiermann gave up two hits, two walks, two runs, and struck out one. Jacob Kranawetter finished out the fifth inning to end the game with no runs, no hits, no walks and one strike out.
But pitching means nothing if you don’t have offense. And the offense showed up big. Baker’s plan wasn’t necessarily to make a short game of things, but sometimes that happens.
“Something I say to them (the players) every game is, ‘if you play a hard seven, you only play five,’” he said. “We scored six in the first, seven in the second, and it’s awfully hard to make a game last seven innings if you’re on that same pace the entire game. We came out swinging, and Kirkwood seemed like they were on a different gear than we were.”
A different gear, indeed. Post 177 batted around the lineup in the first, second and fourth innings, scoring six, seven and eight runs respectively. In addition to closing out the game for Eureka, Kranawetter also did yeoman’s work on the offensive side going 2-for-2, drawing two walks, scoring three runs, and batting in four of his teammates. Not to be outdone, Brodie Hunt went 2-for-3, scoring four runs, batting in two and walking twice. As a team, Eureka was 9-for-20 (.450), walking 15 times, only striking out four times.
Eureka will face Ste. Genevieve Post 150 in the first round of zone play on Saturday at 1 p.m. Baker is looking forward to the tournament, knowing his team has hit their stride at the right time, so he’s not planning on changing anything any time soon.
“Whatever we’ve been doing the last ten games, we’ll continue. We haven’t lost since we went to Indiana, so I intend for that to be the same plan. These guys are ready, and they’re motivated. I think they’re excited to go to state.”
Edmiston was a pitcher with his plan.
“I’m going to pitch every team how I pitch every day,” he said.
Opponents fall to mercy rule
Eureka Post 177’s mission since the beginning of the season was to win the Missouri District 10 championship.
And it won by the mercy rule (10 runs) against the first two opponents to get there.
Eureka manager Noah Baker said he was looking forward to Eureka’s impending out of town tournament in Indiana over Father’s Day weekend. Baker was convinced it would make them a complete unit and see “we” over “I.”
And he was right.
Since returning from the John E. Hayes Best of the Midwest Tournament, Post 177 is 9-0, beating every opponent except one by four runs or more. Baker credits his players’ work ethic, “These guys are in the cages when we’re not playing,” he said. “The days we’ve had rainouts they’ve gone to the cages themselves and hit, just because they want to get better. They know what it means to win a district championship, and what it takes to do it. They are willing to put in the practice and very obviously it’s working.”
Even as Baker was talking after the 11-1 victory over Chesterfield Post 556 at Principia July 13, players were throwing long toss, some were playing pepper, and others were taking reps at the plate off each other. This team is certainly one unit now.
Drew Nichols took the mound for Post 177 and the righthander was dealing through the first three innings, facing just 10 hitters and giving up one hit.
In the fourth inning, Nichols allowed two walks on two outs, but settled down to grab the third out using his defense. The fifth inning required Nichols to dig deep. After giving up a single to the inning’s second batter, he fanned one, then gave up a double and walked one to load the bases. The last out of the inning came as the hitter sent a ground ball to third baseman Ty Munk, who stepped on third base.
To start the top of the sixth, Nichols gave up a single to the first batter, and then let his defense do the work for the first two outs. The final out of the inning came on a swinging strike out but not before Chesterfield was able to score a run. Nichols pitched all six innings and only threw 80 pitches. He gave up three hits and one unearned run, struck out four and walked three.
The bats for Post 177 were hotter than the weather. Eureka struck first in the second inning, when Oliver Orendain smacked a double and then was brought home by Thomas Werner’s single to left. The team stranded three in the third.
In the fifth inning, Chesterfield’s pitching broke down and Eureka took full advantage, scoring seven runs and batting around. Eureka added two more runs in the sixth to win by the mercy rule. All eleven of Post 177’s runs were earned and they banged out 13 hits and drew eight walks.
Baker liked what he saw.
“Our defense has been really solid,” Baker said. “Brett Barnett made a lot of plays at second base, and our infield was very tight. Our catcher, Thomas Werner, looked great today. The difference between five errors in a game and zero errors in a game is just insane. Playing defense will win or lose ballgames. And the bats have been rolling the last 10 games. We hit doubles all day, all week, all month, it’s been great.”
Manchester Post 208 defeated Maryland Heights Post 213 9-7 in the first round. Manchester and Eureka split a pair of games during the regular season; the first time Manchester won by one run, the second time Eureka by four. Eureka wasted no time, putting up three runs in the first, four in the second, one in the fourth and the final two runs to win 10-0 in the sixth.
While starting pitcher Sean O’Brien officially gets the win for Eureka, the combined staff of O’Brien, Brady Kirn and Will Fieser deserve the credit. The three hurlers combined for a total of no runs, no walks, two hits, and, in a move that essentially gave 177’s defense a rest, fanned 15 batters.
Over the course of the first two rounds of district play, Eureka hit a combined .386, smacked eight doubles, and only struck out five times. And it all points back to their extracurricular time in the cages.
Eureka hires girls wrestling head coach
A three-time state wrestling qualifier has been hired to be the head coach of the Eureka girls wrestling team.
Clayton Wegener, 27, qualified for the Class 4 state championships starting his sophomore year with the Wildcats and ended up going three times until he graduated in 2015. Wegener’s weights at state were 120, 138 and 152; the final year he got the farthest, the third-round of wrestlebacks, or “bubble round.” Wegener replaces Mark Gentry, who’s been the only coach since girls wrestling was adopted by the Missouri State High School Activities Association in 2018.
“Girls wrestling is an up and coming sport within the state and we have a strong program,” said Eureka activities director Scott Allen. “We look forward to Clayton’s leadership as he takes over for longtime coach Mark Gentry. The future is bright for our girls wrestling program.”
Wegener wrestled alongside Luke Gentry, who is Mark’s son, and the head coach of the Eureka boys team. Luke was two years ahead of Wegener in high school.
“We’re trying to run both programs together,” Wegener said. “I’m glad to coach alongside someone I wrestled with in high school.”
After high school, Wegener spent his first two years wrestling at Missouri Baptist University. He finished his bachelor’s degree at Missouri State University, but didn’t wrestle there. He teaches PE at Stanton Elementary in the Rockwood School District. Wegener was the head coach of the girls wrestling team at Parkway South last season.
There were only a few girls on the Patriots. Wegener has a much bigger lineup to coach at Eureka. The Wildcats haven’t had a state champion yet, but they have had state medal winners.
“When I was in high school it wasn’t a sport but it was an awesome opportunity to offer both sexes the chance to wrestle,” he said. “The numbers have been skyrocketing for the boys and girls. The goal of coaches is to make the girls more watchable. There’s some really good girl wrestlers in the state. Give them 10 more years and they’ll be on the same level as the boys.”
The rise in participation in girls wrestling forced MSHSAA to add a second class for the 2022-2023 school year. In the final year of one class in 2022, the Wildcats turned in their best state performance, finishing 12th.
Lily McCollum was Eureka’s first state medal winner, finishing fourth at 102 pounds in 2021. McCollum was fourth at 100 in 2022. Emily Neumann was the Wildcats’ second medal winner that year, finishing fourth at 135. Eureka didn’t reach the medal stand in 2023, but in February, Emily’s sister, Addison, finished fifth at 235.
Addison was one of six – Ellie Smith, Kirra Dunscombe, Autumn Ashlock, Mira Richardson, Mya Willis – Wildcats to qualify for state at Mizzou Arena in Columbia and none of them graduated.
“I’m excited to coach a full team this year,” Wegener said. “With six state qualifiers coming back, I hope to be a top-15 team by the end of the season. Coach (Mark) Gentry left me in an awesome position.
“Girls are super awesome learners. Being able to get the basics down in a complex sport is hard enough. They’re getting better in expanding their technique. And I’m excited to be part of that. I’ve been telling them this is a sport that can teach you life skills and help you defend yourself. Wrestling is such a hard sport. Doing hard things in life is super important. That’a a good lesson for kids. Wrestling is probably the hardest thing I’ve done in my life.”