EDWARDSVILLE – The long ball can serve a useful purpose when it comes to baseball.
It can provide a spark when a spark is needed. It can break open a game. It can give a big lift.
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And Wednesday evening, it was how all but one of the runs in the IHSA Class 4A Edwardsville Regional semifinal between Alton and the host Tigers were scored.
None of the homers loomed larger than Dylan Burris' solo shot with two out in the bottom of the fourth, a drive over the fence in right-center that gave the Tigers a bit of breathing room; from there, EHS pitching, led by Kade Burns, took over from there and helped the Tigers to a 5-3 win over the Redbirds to advance to Saturday morning's regional final against Belleville West, 13-1 winners over Granite City earlier Wednesday; the final begins at 10 a.m. Saturday with a berth in the Illinois Wesleyan Sectional in Bloomington at stake.
The Tigers improved to 29-7 on the year with the win; the Redbirds were eliminated at 17-16.
“He's (Burns) a great competitor and he wants the ball; he wants to go out there and execute pitches,” said Tiger coach Tim Funkhouser, “and he did a great job of mixing up his pitches like he's done all year. We made some good plays behind him.
“We talked to our guys about like 'enjoy the butterflies that are in your belly, but go ahead and trust yourself.' That's why we play the schedule we play each year and try to get after it in practice every day to just lay it on the line.”
The big home run played a key part in Edwardsville's half of the first when Andrew Yancik launched one over the fence in center field; the homer was set up by a key Joel Quirin at-bat that saw him draw a walk off Redbird pitcher Charlie Erler, with Quirin eventually coming around to score on a Dalton Wallace single that put Wallace and Blake Burris on second and third with Yancik coming up.
“The first two guys go out and Quirin comes up and has a great at-bat – I think it was a seven, eight pitch at-bat – that leads to the next couple of guys getting on and then sure enough, Yancik has a big fly ball – he put a great swing on it,” Funkhouser said. “He got a breaking pitch and put a swing on one.”
That swing helped put the Tigers up 4-0 through one inning, only to see AHS' Steven Nguyen counter with a three-run shot of his own in the top of the third that brought in Erler and Mike Hampton ahead of Nguyen to cut the EHS lead to 4-3. It stayed that way until the fourth, when Burris unloaded his homer to right-center to up the lead to 5-3, which is where it stayed the rest of the way as the Tigers came up with big plays and big pitches to keep the Redbirds at bay the rest of the evening.
“I think good teams find a way to win close ball games,” said Redbird coach Todd Haug. “We've been in three close ball games with them and I think we had a good conversation with them in our team huddle and we talked about saying goodbye to a few of those guys who have been around quite a long time with us, but utilizing these outcomes that we've had with this very young team and letting that fuel us and not wasting any time in getting right back at it as we get into summer ball and learning how to come out on the other side of these close ball games.”
Erler pitched a very good game, Haug felt, citing some adjustments Erler made in his pitching mechanics. “Coaching is a helpless position,” Haug said, “because you play that ultimate chess match; in the end, they have to produce. Charlie is an example of, at the beginning, there was an reluctancy – we needed to make a few mechanical changes – and he's the example we used in the team huddle – nothing but good things to say about the adjustments that he made; that's called being coachable, and that's all we can ask of a kid.”
“I was really impressed how he (Erler) was able to throw his change-up as the game went on last time against us,” Funkhouser said of Erler's performance. “From this game early on, I thought his stuff was really good; for us to get four runs off him early, I felt really good about that. - not thinking the game was over, but really good we got four runs off a guy who's got really good stuff.”
Yancik went 2-for-3 on the night for the Tigers with the homer, three RBIs and a run scored, while Dylan Burris was 1-for-4 with the homer, RBI and run scored; Drake Westcott was 1-for-2, Quirin a run scored, Will Messer 1-for-3 with a run scored and Blake Burris a run scored. For the Redbirds, Nguyen went 2-for-3 with his homer and a double, three RBIs and a run scored, Hampton 1-for-1 with a run scored, Adam Stilts 1-for-2, Brandon Droste 1-for-3, Ben Mossman 1-for-3 and Erler 1-for-3 with a run scored.
Burns got the win, going six innings while striking out eight with Yancik getting the save, fanning two in two-thirds of an inning and Dan Picchiotti going a third of an inning and fanning the only hitter he faced; Erler went the distance and dismissed 12 by strikeout.
The Maroons loom ahead for the Tigers; West eliminated the Tigers in last year's regional at West and defeated EHS twice this year as the won the Southwestern Conference crown.
“We've lost a couple of close ones against West and they've got some competitors around the field,” Funkhouser said, “some guys who really like to compete. They got us the last three times, so we'll go back about our business the next couple of days and look forward to the challenge.”
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