EDWARDSVILLE - The Edwardsville High baseball team got their second walk-off win in a matter of hours Saturday afternoon, as a Kayden Jennings double scored three runs to give the Tigers a dramatic 5-4 win over Huntley, then Edwardsville scored seven times in the third inning en route to a 14-3 win over St. Charles North to sweep their games in the Metro-East Kickoff Classic showcase tournament at Tom Pile Field.
The Tigers are now off to a 4-0 start, having defeated four quality Chicagoland schools in Lisle Benet Academy Catholic, Winnetka New Trier, Huntley and St. Charles North, and Tigers' coach Tim Funkhouser was a very happy person after the second game.
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"Oh, I'm feeling tired," Funkhouser said with a smile and laugh in his postgame interview. "No, I was excited to see our guys play. And whether we made a mistake or somebody didn't do something really well, there's a lot of learning opportunities and growth moments. So, we kind of flashed out there. Four games in 48 hours and really on the season, we saw a lot of good things and I think our guys saw some things that they want to continue to work on, which I think will continue to motivate them as well."
The two wins against the Trevians on Friday evening and the Red Raiders on Saturday afternoon were come-from-behind efforts where the Tigers came up with the walk-off wins. It showed much character on Edwardsville's part.
"You get something like that, you know you're not out of a game," Funkhouser said. "But especially to do it against the quality clubs that we faced. I mean, you're talking New Trier, who's always one of the top fundamental teams and top-quality teams and for them to put a six-spot up on you. And then our guys keep working, working to get back in the game. Then Huntley, who's number one in (Prep Baseball Report) in the state, and they put three runs up on us in the first. And we really had a lot of opportunities to score more runs and we just got most of them in the seventh there.
"Our guys competed really well," Funkhouser continued, "I thought our pitching did outstanding this weekend and I look forward to going to practice on Monday."
When it comes to individual standouts on the weekend, Funkhouser felt that it was a total team effort.
"We have a lot of different guys that can do different things," Funkhouser said, "and I think what stood out to me was that they all cared about each other. And they all want to do well and even when they had success, they want to repeat that success and when they struggled a little bit, you can see that they're motivated to get better. So it's going to build a fun environment moving forward."
That togetherness is one of the trademarks of the club, and Funkhouser also thanked many people who made the showcase tournament possible.
"Hopefully, that's the case," Funkhouser said. "With the Kickoff Classic, we're fortunate that we have a lot of people help out with it. We partnered with O'Fallon and their program and their school to run this event. They do a great job on the things that they do. For the scheduling part, they spend a lot of time with that, so it'll be nice to kind of catch my breath this weekend," he said with a smile and laugh. "And (the Metro Umpires Association) does an outstanding job of getting umpires and working with us with some of the changes we had. And then, to have 49 teams scheduled and I believe 47 played in the event, despite the weather that we had yesterday at times and early morning coldness and some rain in different spots lingering a little bit this morning.
"We couldn't be more thankful of all those people, our booster cub and O'Fallon's boosters that help out with theirs," Funkhouser continued. "GCS (Ballpark) and SIU (for Roy Lee Field) for using their facilities, Alton, Gordon Moore Park (Lloyd Hopkins Field) and then all the other hosting schools, like Belleville East, Belleville West. And you get a bunch of guys together that love baseball and love putting kids in an environment like this, you get a great event like this."
Which only serves to grow and enhance the game in a metro area such as St. Louis, where the baseball tradition is very strong and deep rooted.
"Absolutely," Funkhouser said. "I had multiple guys, New Trier was one of them. Mike Napoleon, he's one of the most veteran coaches in the state and I think he's probably second all-time wins leader in the state. And he's like 'this is awesome. We're coming down every year if you'll have us.' So we definitely will, we'll look forward to next year. But right now, we're going to take a deep breath and enjoy the weekend that we had and also recharge with the things we missed out during that time with family and stuff like that."
Edwardsville started off strongly in the first, with a four-run inning. Spencer Stearns doubled with two out, went to third on a Caleb Copeland hit, then Andrew Hendrickson walked to load the bases. Jennings then doubled to the fence in left center to clear the bases and give the Tigers a 3-0 lead. Jennings later scored on an error by the catcher to give the Tigers a 4-0 lead.
The Tigers extended their lead to 11-0 with a seven-run third as Cole Funkhouser drove home two runs with a bases-loaded double and was climaxed with a three-run homer by Hendrickson - the team's first of the year - over the right field fence to make it 11-0. In the top of the fourth, the Stars got on the board with three runs as a Ryan Caccia sacrifice fly and a single by Parker Reinke brought home to of the runs for North. Edwardsville countered with three of their own in the bottom of the fourth, with a single by Joe Chiarodo single and a fielder's choice by Lucas Krebs bringing in two of the runs. The Stars were retired in the fifth to give the win to the Tigers via the 10-run rule.
In the first game against Huntley, the Red Raiders jumped out in front with three in the first, with the Tigers countering with one in the second. Huntley got the run back in the top of the third to go ahead 4-1 before the Tigers rallied again, scoring four in the seventh and climaxed by Jennings' bases-clearing double with two out in the bottom of the seventh to give Edwardsville the win.
Funkhouser had two hits and a RBI in the game against Huntley, while Grant Huebner also had two hits, Jennings' game-winning hit was his only hit of the game, Riley Iffrig had a hit and RBI and Gannon Burns also had a hit.
Alec Marchetto struck out four on the mound, while Stearns fanned three for the Tigers.
Edwardsville starts off 4-0 and next plays Tuesday afternoon at DeSmet Jesuit in Creve Coeur, Mo., then hosts Granite City on Wednesday, with both games et to start at 4:30 p.m. Funkhouser is anxious to get back to work when the new week starts up.
"We'll get back to practice on Monday," Funkhouser said. "and then hopefully, we'll get some good weather on Tuesday and Wednesday for those games and see how we're good we are then."
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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