EDWARDSVILLE – The Metro East Bears are on the verge of something big.
The Bears, who hadn't played for two-and-a-half weeks going into this week's American Legion Great Lakes Regional tournament, advanced into Friday night's winner's bracket final against Rockport, Ind., by bouncing back from 2-0 and 5-2 deficits with a five-run top of the seventh inning to defeat Beloit, Wis., 7-5 at Roy E. Lee Field at SIU-Edwardsville Thursday night.
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The win put the Bears into the winner's bracket final against Rockport, Ind., at 7 p.m. tonight; they and Rockport are the only unbeaten teams remaining in the tournament. Tonight's winner will advance to Sunday afternoon's final with a trip to the American Legion World Series in Shelby, N.C., on the line. Beloit will face Madison, Wis., at 4 p.m. today in an elimination game.
The Bears did it thanks in part to the hot hitting of catcher Steven Patten, who has had eight hits in eight trips to the plate since the tournament got under way Wednesday, and timely hitting when it was needed most.
“I'm very proud of their effort tonight and last night,” said Bears manager Ken Schaake. “They got down both games and came back. We talked to them every practice and told them, 'just because you're the host team, don't think you don't belong here' because I kept pointing out the games we played during the regular season.
“I said to them, 'you ran into a Highland team that was playing good baseball' (in the District 22 playoffs). Unfortunately, we leave 10-15 on over two games and we lost. I pointed out the Belleville games and pointed out 'you came back against a team you didn't play well against.' All I can say is that we've been to these tournaments and they know what they're playing for and they're close to getting someplace special and the kids are coming together.”
Pattan's hitting has helped the Bears in their two tournament games – he's gone 8-for-8 in the tournament, with two 4-for-4 games. “I'm seeing the ball well right now, trying to put a barrel on the bat, do good things and I'm in the nine-hole; I feel confident in the nine hole, I know what I can do,” Patten said.
Storm Coffman got the ball for the Bears and after giving up two runs in the first, pitched efficiently. “Stormy was working ahead in the count,” Patten said. “He left a couple of curveballs up, which is all right – that'll happen – he came back real well. I've been playing with him my whole life; he knows what pitches he can throw on what count.
“When he stumbled, we were real smart with him and then Devin (Colley), he got into a couple of jams...we're confident in him to get out of whatever jam we might be in.”
One thing about the Bears is that they don't go away easily when they're facing trouble. “Maybe earlier in the season, our intensity wasn't as high,” Patten said. “We might had not had that drive to win as much as we do now; we're just competing harder than anything now.”
“A guy would get on and I just tried to block that out,” Colley said, “and I try to keep them to ground balls as best as I could. It feels really good. I'm glad I'm here; the coaches and all the players are so supportive.”
“Hats off to them; they've got a great team,” said Beloit manager Ryan Schmitz. “So do we, we think. We didn't get as many big hits as they did. It was a well-played game. He's (Coffman) a good pitcher; he was making good pitches. At this level, we've got some good pitchers, they've got some good pitchers and they’re going to get some outs.
“It's a tough game; hitters are going to make outs. They got some big hits, a couple more big hits for us, it could have been the other way around.”
Beloit got off to a good start when Ethan Burns and Nate Loomis got two-out singles off Coffman and scored on Austin Grover triple to put them out to a 2-0 lead. Metro East got a run back in the fourth when Collin Clayton doubled to left-center and a pair of groundouts from Jake Garella and Drake Hampton chased him home to halve the lead. A RBI single from Clayton in the fifth scored Cole Hansel to tie the game up in the top of the fifth.
Beloit seemingly took control of the game in the sixth when they got back on top 5-2 thanks to RBI singles from Andres Osilio and Jake McClellan and a groundout from Drew Frietag that scored Loomis, Grover and Osilio. Back came the Bears in the seventh when Patten and Cole Cimarolli opened the inning with singles that put runners at the corners. Clayton then lifted a sacrifice fly to right to score Patten and Garella doubled in Cimarolli to pull the Bears to 5-4.
Drake Hampton singled in Garella to tie the game at 5-5 and Tyler Stamer singled to get on base one out later. Chance Foss then delivered a two-run double to put the Bears on top for the first time in the evening, and Colley bent but didn't break against Beloit's offense, getting out of jams in the seventh and eighth to preserve the lead, getting a big fielder's choice to get the Burns for the second out and allow Loomis to reach base. He was forced at second to end the game.
Clayton went 2-for-4 with a double, two RBIs and a run scored, while Patten was 4-for-4 with a run scored. Cimarolli was 1-for-3 with a run score, Garella 1-for-5 with a double, RBI and run scored, Hampton 1-for-5 with two RBIs and a run scored, Mitchell Krebs 1-for-5 with a double, Foss 1-for-4 with two RBIs, Hansel 1-for-4 with a run scored and Stamer had a run scored.
Grover was 2-for-5 for Beloit with a triple and two RBIs, and a run scored, Osilio 1-for-4 with a double, RBI and run scored, Burns, Loomis and Grover each had two hits, with Burns and Grover RBIs each and Loomis two RBIs and McClellan three hits with a RBI.
Coffman got the win, going six innings and giving up five earned runs on nine hits while not recording a strikeout. Colley got the save, conceding three hits and fanning no one. Logan Johnson took the loss for Beloit, throwing 6.1 innings and conceding five earned runs on nine hits while dismissing two by strikeout.
Tournament updates and live scoring is available at the tournament web site, wee.legionbb.com
