The Jefferson County Blazers made two left turns toward a team benchmark last week.
After beating American National 2-1 in Hazelwood on Friday and shutting out Freeburg 13-0 behind left-hander Chase Beard’s no-hitter on Saturday, the Blazers’ second no-no last week, they are sporting a lofty record of 20-3 in the St. Louis Amateur Baseball Association (SLABA). Now the players are talking about winning 40 games, something that the Blazers last accomplished in 1998.
Even in defeat, the Blazers have been competitive. Their three losses were 1-0, 2-0 and 4-1
“It’s very difficult to do,” Kutilek said about reaching 40 victories. “You need to be lucky in weather and go deep in tournaments to get to that total. The goal of the program is to represent Jefferson County.”
Beard will be a senior at Windsor this fall.
“Chase’s biggest issue historically is staying around the plate; his big deal is walks,” Jefferson County head coach Aaron Kutilek said. “We told him to slow his lower half down and let his arm do the work. He can’t just throw. He gets in a pattern of repeating things, but this is three outings in a row he’s been outstanding. They (Blazers pitchers) all feed off of each other and challenge each other.”
Lefty Evan Henson, who went 7-2 with a 1.68 earned-run average in the spring for Lindbergh, walked the first O’Fallon batter he faced and hit the third, but was otherwise untouchable, striking out 10 batters and fashioning a no-hitter in a 3-0 shutout in a game that was called in the top of the sixth due to lightning on June 14.
“He’s kind of a John Tudor-type, for all the throwback people,” Blazers head coach Aaron Kutilek said, comparing Henson to the St. Louis Cardinal ace of the 1980s. “He throws his curveball in all counts, which makes his fastball that much better. Nobody squares him up. How many people do you see that can throw three different pitches any way he wants? He has been phenomenal.”
In five starts this summer, Henson is 4-1, his only loss a 1-0 decision against the Stallions on June 4. He’s thrown more than 29 innings, with 35 strikeouts and only five walks. And while holding opposing batters to a .230 average, the wispy 135-pound Henson has a 1.52 earned-run average.
The Blazers might best be described as akin to the bunch of baseball players from the 1976 movie, “The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings,” a squad that traveled all over the Midwest, but had no real place to call home.
Virtually a nomadic team this summer, the Blazers have visited Hazelwood and St. Charles, and crossed the Mississippi to play in Belleville, O’Fallon, Waterloo and Freeburg in Illinois.
The Blazers, who have players from seven different high schools this summer, have taken to the road because the outfield of its home field at Fox High is being refurbished. And lately, they’ve been unhittable.
The Blazers, as has been the case more often than not, didn’t provide Henson with much offense. But what they gave him in just two innings, the left-hander made the most of. In the third, Colton McAnally reached on an infield hit with two outs. He was plated on a Nate Robinson double to right-center, then Robinson tagged up when Joey Johnson scorched a hit to right field.
The Blazers padded their lead in the fourth. Davis Mason walked, was sacrificed to second by Nolan Robinson, and then scored on an Adam Edwards triple to the right field corner.
“We pitch, and we play defense, but we just don’t hit,” Kutilek said. “A lot of the kids do really great things, we just don’t do a great job of getting on base.”
As for being road warriors, the Blazers do have a home game coming up at Seckman on June 27, but Kutilek plays it off as not a big deal.
“I think the hardest part (of not having a home field this season) it’s not being able to show up really early, and work to get better,” he said. “Instead of taking a lengthy batting practice, we’re knocking Wiffle balls around. It’s definitely hurt our ability to work on building our offense to a better level.
“The way you have to look at it, really, is that out of maybe 50 games only 14 are SLABA ones. So really it’s not that big an issue to travel, because that’s what we do. And we’ve certainly traveled a lot, but in reality you just have to show up and play baseball.”