Senior Night for Edwardsville's baseball team went pretty much according to plan.
The Tigers honored their 13 seniors in a pre-game ceremony Friday, much to the delight of the Tiger faithful gathered at Tom Pile Field, then EHS went out and took care of business, jumping out to a 6-1 lead through four innings before Triad cut the lead to two runs in the fifth. In the end, though, Edwardsville won their 32nd game of the year against one loss in a 6-4 victory.
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“Anytime you win a game, you're doing a lot of good things,” said Tiger coach Tim Funkhouser, who was also honored in the pre-game ceremony for becoming the winningest coach in Edwardsville baseball history. “Triad's a competitive team; their pitchers were changing speeds on us. But we did a good job of being patient and swinging at hitter's pitches.
“We definitely wanted to get our seniors in there and get some work in for our players in preparation for the playoffs. I think we did that pretty well tonight.”
The Knights (7-25) managed to strike first in the opening half-inning when John McGee led off with a single and Gavin McGrath walked on EHS starting pitcher Aaron Jackson. The two advanced on a groundout to the Jackson for the first out, and McGee scored on a groundout to second to put Triad up 1-0.
The Tigers countered with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning when Jordan Hovey and Collin Clayton connected on back-to-back doubles to score Hovey. In the next innings, Maverick McSparin singled with one out and went to third when Mitchell Krebs doubled. A Hovey walked loaded the bases and Clayton singled in McSparin and Krebs.
Hovey attempted to advance to third on the play, but was seemingly trapped by the Triad defense. Hovey managed to avoid a tag at third, and a throw to the third baseman by McGee got away, allowing Hovey to come in with the third Tiger run to put EHS up 4-1 through two innings.
In the fourth, Clayton drew a one-out walk and Jackson singled to put two on base. Matt Zielonko singled in Clayton and Jake Garella singled home Jackson for two more runs. Triad made it close in the fifth when the Knights scored off a Cole Witzer double, a double play hit into by Gavin McGrath and a Nate Funk single to make it 6-4. Edwardsville pitching shut down the Knights the rest of the way, however, and the Tiger fans celebrated the win.
The Tigers close out the regular season with a 11 a.m. Monday game at Waterloo, then begin their IHSA Class 4A regional with a semifinal match between the Danville-Pekin winner at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. Quincy takes on Alton at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the other semifinal, with the winners meeting at 11 a.m. May 30 for the regional title and a trip to the Normal West Sectional.
“We're looking forward to it,” Funkhouser said.
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