EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville High’s under-17 summer baseball team had to overcome a tough loss in their final group-play game Sunday morning, bouncing back to defeat the team that had just beat them in the group-play game to reach the final of the Diamond Sports Promotions Midwest Classic tournament before the Tigers dropped a 10-0, six-inning decision to the Decatur Commodores club team in Sunday night’s final.
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The Tigers concluded their summer season with a 17-13 record after falling to the BNBA Gold Hawk/Pax team 7-1 in the rain-delayed group-play finale to drop to 3-1 in the group for a fourth-place finish; BNBA took first in the overall standings to set up a Sunday afternoon semifinal game with the Tigers.
Edwardsville bounced back to move into the final 7-4 thanks to two runs in the sixth and a run in the seventh to get to the final.
“We showed a lot of heart in this (Sunday afternoon) game,” said EHS coach Craig Ohlau. “We could have folded after we made (two errors in the game), but our guys gathered themselves and realized the game of baseball includes a little bit of failure – we got our wits about us, took really good at-bats, were able to get some big hits.”
Edwardsville’s pitching did a very good job throughout the summer schedule, Ohlau felt. “Good pitching has been our forte this summer,” Ohlau said. “Our pitchers have kept us in games; the defense has been good. I’m really proud of these guys; it’s been a really fun summer coaching-wise with this group.
“They’re a very enjoyable group to be around.”
In the Sunday morning group-play finale, played at Tom Pile Field, BNBA broke the game open with two runs in the fifth and four in the sixth to run out winners. Logan Cromer was 1-for-3 with a double for Edwardsville, with Gavin Huebner 1-for-2 with a double, Joe Toscano 1-for-3 with a double and Aaron Young 1-for-3 with a double; those were EHS’ only hits of the game, with Tyler Depper scoring the only Tiger run of the game. Young took the loss despite nine strikeouts; Jack Link also saw time on the mound and fanned one.
In the Sunday afternoon semifinal rematch at Tom Pile, the Tigers took a 4-0 lead in the top of the second but conceded a run in the third before BNBA tied it up with three in the fourth; EHS responded with a pair of runs in the sixth and one in the seventh to move into the final.
Huebner led the way with a 2-for-3 game with a double, two RBIs and two runs scored; Toscano was 2-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI, Gavin Reames went 1-for-1 with an RBI and run scored and Jonathon Yancik went 1-for-4 with a double and run scored. Weston Slemmer was 1-for-4 with an RBI, Young 2-for-4 with two runs scored, Nick Logan 1-for-3 with an RBI and run scored and Cromer 1-for-2 with an RBI.
Depper went five innings for the win, dismissing three by strikeout while Reames worked two innings and fanned two.
Against Decatur, a six-run bottom of the fourth proved costly for Edwardsville as the Commodores closed it out with solo runs in the fifth and sixth. Slemmer went 2-for-2 with a double and Huebner was 1-for-3 with a double; Young went 1-for-3 and Logan was 1-for-3. Cromer threw 3.2 innings and took the loss, striking out one on the night.
