EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville High’s under-17 summer baseball team had a pair of big wins Friday in the opening day of group play of the Diamond Sports Promotions Midwest Classic tournament, the Tigers taking a 1-0 win over Legends Baseball in their opener and then scoring four times in the bottom of the sixth to defeat Arsenal of Springfield 8-5 to go to 2-0 in the tournament heading in Saturday’s games.
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The Tigers went to 15-11 on the summer with the two wins in their summer finale with two more group-play games assured today.
“We caught some breaks; I mean, the (Arsenal) pitcher hit a couple of guys, booted it around a little bit, but credit to our guys – we came in there and dug in, gritted our teeth and grinded one out,” said Tiger coach Craig Ohlau. “Gavin (Reames) becoming the iron man out there on the mound; I don’t think he’s been taken out of one game that he’s pitched – every game he’s pitched, he’s thrown a complete game.
“Hats off to Reames on a great performance.”
Against Legends, Zac Crutchfield conceded only four hits and fanned four in getting the 1-0 win. “Crutch was a Picasso in the opener,’ Ohlau said of Crutchfield’s performance. “We took advantage of some breaks that were given to us today and we put ourselves in a position to take advantage of those breaks – it worked out for us.”
In the opener, Edwardsville’s only run came in the third when Jonathan Yancik led off with a double and went to third on a fly ball by Gavin Huebner; Logan Cromer then drove Yancik home on an RBI single to put the Tigers out front. Legends then shut the door on Edwardsville, but Crutchfield made the run stand up for the win.
In the game against Arsenal, the two teams traded three-run innings in the first and second for they traded solo runs in the third and fourth to keep the game tied at 4-4; Arsenal then scored in the fifth to take the lead before Huebner got a one-out single; after the second out, Edwardsville came alive while taking advantage of some Arsenal miscues.
Nick Logan got a two-out double to send Huebner to third and Matt Stopka drew a walk to load the bases and bring up Aaron Young; Young got an RBI when he was hit by a pitch to score Huebner and tie the game at 5-5 before Weston Slemmer reached on an error to bring in Logan, Stopka and Young to give Edwardsville an 8-5 lead. The next two hitters were put out, but the Tigers had grabbed the lead before Reames retired the side for the win.
Against Legends, Yancik went 1-for-2 with a double with the only run scored; Cromer was 2-for-2 with the game-winning RBI and Young, Tyler Depper and Reames each had a hit in the win. Against Arsenal, Logan was 1-for-3 with a double and a run scored while Yancik went 1-for-2 with a double, two RBIs and a run scored; Young went 1-for-3 with an RBI and run scored, Joe Toscano 1-for-3 with a run scored, Dalton Wallace 1-for-4 with two RBIs, Huebner 1-for-2 with a run scored, Stopka 1-for-2 with a run scored and Slemmer two run scored.
Edwardsville completes group play with an 11:30 a.m. game against Illinois Patriots of Springfield and a 2 p.m. game against BNBA Gold Hawk/Pax; both games are at Tom Pile Field, with bracket play among the top four teams after today’s games set for 11:15 a.m. Sunday at the JV turf field and 11:30 a.m. Sunday at Tom Pile Field; the final is at 3:15 p.m. Sunday at SIU-Edwardsville’s Roy Lee Field.
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