EDWARDSVILLE – The Edwardsville High School baseball team scored the first run of the game without a hit. As it turned out, it would be the only run of the game for the Tigers, as they were held hitless until the sixth and committed six errors as Edwardsville lost to Naperville Neuqua Valley 8-1 late Saturday afternoon at Tom Pile Field.
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The Wildcats tied the game in the third, then scored four times in the fourth and three more in the seventh to take the win.
The Tigers didn’t execute in the game, and it came back to haunt them again.
“The fundamentals of the game are the fundamentals of the game,” Edwardsville coach Tim Funkhouser said, “and we didn’t play those that well. We didn’t do them on the defensive end, we didn’t do them on the basepaths, we didn’t back up a base or so, and we didn’t cover first base as well, we made some throws to some bags that we shouldn't have. And Neuqua Valley’s got a great program. They’re a perennial power, winning 30 games a year, and even thought that was their first game going out, they played really well and didn’t give us anything, and when we hit a couple of balls hard with runners in scoring position, it found their guys, so we didn’t get anything to drop today. The things we can control, we needed to do better at, so that was unfortunate that didn’t go well.”
The Tigers have lost two of their first three games of the season, but Funkhouser knows that there’s plenty of time for the Tigers to recover.
“Oh, yeah,” Funkhouser said. “We knew going into this game that we played three of the better teams in the 47-team event. Being the schedule maker, I knew that going in that could be the case,” he said with a laugh. “That being said, we should have been able to break out the game yesterday and finish Brother Rice off. We let them back into the game, and then they were able to put up an eight spot in the seventh, and we weren’t able to finish that game. The game today, we just didn’t play well at all, and the things that we can control, we didn’t do well.
“So it doesn’t matter who you’re playing, if you play poorly in the fundamentals of the game, it’ll get you,” Funkhouser continued. “We have a lot of ball left, we’ve been outside, maybe four times, and we’ll get better. And as we face adversities, if we take those head-on, and learn from our mistakes, and then work on improving those, we’ll be pretty good. If we don’t take accountability, and we don’t focus on what we need to get better, we’ll make the same mistakes, Pretty simple.”
It was Neuqua Valley’s season opener, and the Wildcats worked their game plan to perfection.
“Just working the plate and executing our plan,” Neuqua Valley head coach James Thornton said. “We trust our defense, we trust our the outfielders and infielders to do the job, so pound the zone and see what happens.”
The four-run fourth that allowed the Wildcats to go ahead was a big part of the game, which gave Neuqua Valley much-needed momentum.
“And that’s the thing with high school baseball and momentum,” Thornton said. “All you need is one crack to kind of have the momentum swing. Once we got those four runs, everybody was a little comfortable. I was nervous, some of the kids were nervous, so once that happened, I think we were able to calm down and just kind of do what we do.”
It was the Wildcats’ opener, and as most teams in the area and state, the team hasn’t been able to get outside much because of bad weather.
“You know what? We’ve scratched, we want to get outside,” Thornton said. “We’ve been outside a couple of times, but not much. A lot of rain in Naperville, so just getting out here and being able to get dirty was more enjoyable than anything else. Win, lose or draw, it was just nice to be outside.”
And although Neuqua Valley hasn’t been outside much, the team knew that they could be behind a little bit, but the Wildcats were able to find a niche as the game went on.
“Our coaches said, you know, the first time we think about it, we were dragging, we were a little behind,” Thornton said. “We’ve tried to throw live in our cages at home. We really couldn’t get it. It was gray, it was overcast, rainy, it just didn’t make for a good workout. Our pitchers couldn’t find the zone, it was cold. So getting out here, that first inning, first time through the order, we kind of knew that we may drag a little bit, but once the top of our order gets going, then we feel pretty confident.”
The Tigers took the lead in the bottom of the first without a hit, as Hayden Moore walked, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch, then scored on another wild pitch to give Edwardsville a 1-0 lead. Grant Schaeffer, the Tigers’ starting pitcher, got through the first two innings well, but ran into trouble in the third, as Ethan Schreier and Justin Blazek led off with singles. Mitch Rokosz grounded into a fielder’s choice to force Blazek, but Josiah Scott singled home Schreier to tie the game at 1-1.
The Wildcats took the lead for good in the fourth with Nolan Clifford leading off the inning by tripling to the right field fence, then scoring on an error by the pitcher to give Neuqua Valley the lead. Schreier then reached on another error, and Blazek walked to load the bases. Dawson Taylor was brought into pitch, and Rokosz was hit by a pitch to force home the second run of the inning. Scott struck out, but Casey Pickering reached on the inning’s third error, scoring two runs. A pair of ground outs ended the inning.
Meanwhile, the Tigers couldn’t get a hit until the bottom of the sixth, as Max Ringering singled down the first base line, which turned out to be Edwardsville’s only hit of the game. The Wildcats scored three times in the seventh, on an RBI single by Blazek and a two-run single by Rokosz to make the 8-1 final.
The Tigers will be getting back to work on Monday, with a game at Granite City, followed by home games against DeSmet Wednesday and Moline on Friday. Funkhouser knows there’s plenty of baseball to be played, and his team will work hard to get back on track.
“I know we started 1-2, but I’m looking forward to practicing on Monday and getting better,” Funkhouser said. “It looks like the weather’s going to turn next week, and that’s exciting. And then, we’ll be able to get consistent work on the field, and face the challenges ahead.”
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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