CHAMPAIGN – Two of the big reasons why Edwardsville is heading to this weekend's IHSA Class 4A state baseball tournament are Kade Burns and Dylan Burris.
Once Burns found a groove following the Tigers' fifth-inning explosion that helped them to an 11-3 win over Orland Park Sandburg at Illinois Field Monday evening in the Champaign Super-Sectional, he was unhittable; he retired the last nine Eagles he faced in a row. Burris himself played a key role in the eight-run EHS outburst, igniting the outburst with an one-out single to get the Tigers going and then tripling in two runs to cap off the explosion.
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The closeness of the Tigers has helped foster a season that has the Tigers heading to state. “I think we're a pretty close team,” Burns said, “a lot of seniors who have played together for a long time and younger guys who step up and make plays too. We're all friends on the team and it makes it so much fun when to be out there playing with our family.
“I kind of settled in after that big inning that we had – that helped a lot. It was a fun game to pitch.”
“The pitching staff's been great for us this year,” Burris said. “We had some rough patches where not all of us were hitting in the season and our record kind of went down lower to where it should be, but now everyone's starting to come together. The pitching is really showing because teams aren't scoring many runs and we're hitting – we're finally playing like we're supposed to.”
The fifth inning was the kind of inning where everything came together for EHS. “We all hit the ball hard and in play,” Burris said. “That's exactly what you've got to do; you can't help it if you get robbed, but that was a great display from all aspects of our team.
“I”m very happy (about the opportunity to go to state). This is everything ever one of these guys have been talking about since March 1 – actually since December, when we were working out together. This is what we dreamed about.”
Burris, however, is still taking the one-game-at-a-time approach to this weekend. “You've got to take it one game at a time,” Burris said. “You've still got to play seven hard innings; you can't overthink it, you can't go into it thinking this is a semifinal game, you've got to think it's just another game against another team.”
Burns is confident of the Tigers' chances in Joliet. “I think we were very underrated at the beginning of the year,” Burns said. “State's big – that was the goal and we've reached it; we're not yet there, but we're almost there.”
The Tigers will take on Burbank St. Laurence at 5 p.m. Friday at Silver Creek Field in Joliet, with the winner taking on Friday's first semifinal game between Winnetka New Trier and Crystal Lake South at 5 p.m. Saturday with the state title on the line.
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