- LOUIS – Bryce Beyers knew it wasn’t any ordinary night at the ballpark.
Monday evening, Beyers and the Edwardsville Tigers took on the Parkway West Longhorns under the lights at Busch Stadium, with Edwardsville coming out the other side with a 10-0 win.
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Beyers drove in three RBI with a two-run triple in the fifth inning and an RBI double in the sixth.
It was the first action Beyers has seen at the big league stadium, but for his coach, he had done it a time or two.
Monday was Tim Funkhouser’s 30th trip to Busch Stadium, making four appearances as a player at EHS, and another 26 as a coach, once at Triad and 25 more times as the Tigers’ head coach.
“I know from a player standpoint, and also from the coaches, just being able to see the kids experience it. I mean, you’ve got a kid like Bryce Beyers who puts two barrels on a ball and gets a triple and a double. If you do that in a game period, it’s awesome, but to do it at Busch Stadium,” Funkhouser said.
“I don’t hit many triples as a big guy, kind of limited to doubles and bombs, so hitting the triple felt good. It was nice, made good contact,” Beyers said.
The triple was the first of his career and it drove in two runs in the fifth inning to boost Edwardsville’s lead to 6-0, scoring Lucas Krebs and Greyson Rathgeb. It was hit to the shortest part of the field, down the right-field line toward the wall 325 feet away.
It looked like it had a chance, but it bounced off the wall and stayed in.
Talking with a longtime usher for the St. Louis Cardinals organization who’s seen 24 years of high school games at Busch, he’s only seen four players take one over the wall.
“I was coaching first base in that last inning, and seeing him round second, like he was a big leaguer, it was fun to see,” Funkhouser said.
Beyers popped out in the second, walked in the third, tripled in the fifth, and doubled in the sixth.
“It’s great. I love playing here,” Beyers continued. “I came here when I was a kid all the time, watched a bunch of games, and coming out here to really play a game is awesome. It’s a great experience.”
Games at Busch Stadium are played out to a full nine innings, or a two and a half hour time limit, whichever comes first. Monday night it was the latter, as time was called right after the conclusion of the seventh.
The Tigers gave four pitchers the opportunity to take the mound, beginning with last year’s postseason hero, Alec Marchetto. He threw the first two innings, only allowing a hit while striking out three.
Tristian McMeen threw the third inning, Tristian Lance pitched the fourth and fifth, Evan Moore was in the sixth, and Tyler Powell closed it out in the seventh. They group combined for eight K’s while only allowing three hits.
Kolton Wright scored in the first inning on a wild throw to make it 1-0. He got on via a walk, was batted over to second by Krebs, then stole third, forcing a throw to the bag that went awry, allowing him to head home.
A similar thing happened in the third when Moore stole second, forcing the throw to the bag, allowing Wright to head for home again and make it 2-0. In the same inning Hunter Baugh hit a two-RBI single that scored Danny Story II and Beyers to make it 4-0.
Beyers’ two-run triple made it 6-0, then a sacrifice fly from Chase Alwardt brought in Beyers to make it 7-0. Krebs and Story II both hit RBI singles in the sixth, capped off by the RBI double from Byers to get to the final score of 10-0.
“The team was great,” Beyers said. “Everything was good. We played great defense, we hit the ball well overall, pitched really well. We just did everything right, and whenever we do everything right, we take care of business, and I love it.”
Sometimes the games at Busch Stadium are particularly tricky to manage, as teams are trying to get as many guys playing time as possible, often times putting in JV or freshman players so they can soak it all in as well.
It’s not technically an exhibition game, because it does count toward your overall record, but it’s always a game where enjoyment is put on the front foot over the win.
“We count it as a win or a loss either way,” Funkhouser joked. “It’s about the experience out here and our guys being able to be out in the fine cut grass and look up in the stadium and imagine if there was 46,000 people watching you play baseball.”
The Tigers improve to 15-6 on the season, while the Longhorns, of Ballwin, Missouri, fall to 15-10.
Monday starts a very busy week for Edwardsville, and a pretty important one at that.
“It’s going to be a busy week for us. That was game one of six for us this week,” Beyers said. “We’ve got Belleville West and they’re a good team. They’re second in the conference and we’re ready to play them.”
EHS hosts the Maroons today, Tuesday, April 30, then play at BW on Thursday, May 2. Both games start at 4:30 p.m.
“Right now, we’re in a really good spot, but we know Belleville West has been playing some good baseball and we’ve got to continue to bring it each day,” Funkhouser said about his upcoming Southwestern Conference opponents.
Edwardsville sits in the drivers seat in the SWC at 6-0, while Belleville West is 4-2.
The Tigers then play three more games over the weekend against Chatham Glenwood, Teutopolis, and Highland.
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