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EDWARDSVILLE – Corey Price came up big just when his Metro East Bears needed it Thursday night.
Price was singled in by Cole Hansel in the bottom of the sixth with what proved to be the game-winning run, then threw a strike to Tate Wargo at third to throw out David Lutostanski to end the game and give the Bears a 2-1 win over Highland in an Illinois District 22 playoff game at Edwardsville's Hoppe Park and send the Bears to Saturday's final.
The Bears will face the winner of tonight's Highland-Smithton elimination game at Highland's Glik Park; Smithton eliminated Belleville 5-4 in eight innings at Belleville's Whitey Herzog Field Thursday night. The final will be at Hoppe Park at a time to be announced Saturday, with a second game to be played immediately following the first game if necessary; the winner will advance to next week's Illinois Fifth Division tournament in Highland.
“The key was (Storm) Coffman on the mound,” said Bears manager Ken Schaake of the Bunker Hill product; Coffman had an outstanding performance on the mound, retiring the first 13 batters he faced and giving up a run on five hits while striking out three. “He had them (the first four innings) three up, three down; he didn't walk anybody, he put the ball in play and the second baseman and shortstop had the majority of the work to first base.
“He was around the plate all the time throwing strikes; he was mixing it up, getting his curveball over early in the counts, which really helped with their middle-of-the-order hitters and the guys just hung on in a 1-0 game.”
Highland pitcher Elliott Prott found ways to hold the Bears off as well; Prott conceded just one run to Metro East, a first-inning run scored by Joel Quirin following a Highland error. “He was mixing pitches up; he had them off,” said Highland manager Harry Painter. “They didn't hit a hard ball until they hit that hard foul ball over here and they got the line drive in the sixth that was the second-hardest hit, but before that, for five innings, he had them messed up a little bit.
“There's a lot of great hitters over there and when they're popping the ball up and hitting ground balls, he's on, and that comes from mixing it up.”
That it was such a well-pitched game pleased Painter. “I love baseball games like this,” Painter said. “Five, six hits per team, not a lot of crazy stuff going on; just straight-up baseball. Unfortunately, we came up on the short end.”
Knowing they have an automatic berth in next week's Fifth Division tournament as host team didn't mean Highland was going to ease up. “You can take approaches with the automatic bid next week because we're hosting it, and we decided we wanted to win District 22,” Painter said. “Whatever happens with that, it happens; if it doesn't happen, we're ready for Fifth Division.”
The Bears took the lead early when Quirin reached on a fielder's choice, with Blake Vandiver singling Quirin around to third and scoring when a throw to third got away for a run. From that point, both Prott and Coffman dominated, Prott finding ways out of jams in the second and fifth while Coffman put down the first 13 hitters he faced before Steven Diaz singled to right in the fifth; Jordan Smith then singled to put runners at first and second, with Prott coming up and singling in Diaz to tie the game.
Then came the sixth; Price opened with a single and went to second on a Prott wild pitch. Wargo had popped to first for the first out and Prott was replaced by Garett Marti. Hansel stepped up and greeted Marti with a single to score Price to put the Bears ahead. Will Messer then singled to put runners at first and second but Marti retired Konnor Loewen and Dylan Burris to keep the game at 2-1.
Coffman then retired the first two Highland batters to bring up Diaz, who singled to keep Highland's hopes alive to bring up Prott; he stroked a single to right, with Price bobbling a bounce off the ground. Painter then decided to try to bring Lutostanski, who stepped in to pinch-run for Diaz, to third. Price came up throwing and fired a strike to Wargo, who tagged Lutostanski for the final out to send Metro East to the final.
“He put it right on the peg,” Painter said. “He's one of our fastest guys and we had to try to sneak anything we could out this; hitting wasn't coming in too many big bounces, so we were trying to move runners around and take a chance for a passed ball or whatever.”
For the game, Quirin had a run scored, Price 1-for-3 with a run scored, Hansel 2-for-3 with a RBI and Messer went 1-for-2.
