EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville High under-17 summer baseball team catcher/outfielder Jacob Kitchen got on base twice, on a hit and a walk, in the Tigers’ 1-0 loss to the Rawlings Xtreme in the Saint Louis University/SIU-Edwardsville/Lindenwood University All-College Wood Bat Freedom Classic tournament Saturday evening at Tom Pile Field.
It was a great game played by both sides, where the Xtreme scored the only run of the game in the first inning, then made it stand up. The Tigers had a chance in the fifth, but couldn’t score as the Xtreme took the win.
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“Absolutely,” Kitchen said in a postgame interview. “That’s a great team, and it (stinks) that we couldn’t pull it together."
The Tigers fell to the Xtreme again on Sunday 2-1 to go 3-2 in the tournament in another well-played game on both sides.
Kitchen felt that the Tigers played very well in the Saturday game, making good contact with the ball at bat.
“You know, I think we played a really good ball game,” Kitchen said. “it was a really good pitcher’s dual; their pitcher (Henry McIntosh) was throwing pretty hard, but you make contact with the ball, and good things happen. I think we all did a good job. I tip my hat to (Weston) Slemmer on that base hit; that was good. And we just couldn’t pull together, but we were hitting the ball well.”
The Xtreme defense made key plays throughout the game, throwing out runners at second and at the plate, then turning a line drive into a double play. Kitchen gave credit to the Xtreme defense for their plays.
“Yeah, that’s baseball sometimes,” Kitchen said. “You hit them where they’re at, it’s a wood bat tournament. It’s alright, we’ll get them tomorrow, and looking forward to playing tomorrow.”
Kitchen has some simple goals that he’s been working towards during the summer season and will continue to pursue them in the final games.
“My goals are, obviously, probably, to get on base just a little bit more,” Kitchen said, “and work on my speed a little bit, steal some more bases. I don’t think I was out at second base (on a steal attempt in the second), but, yeah, just work on my agility a little bit, and I think that’s one of my big goals.”
And Kitchen is already looking ahead to the Tigers’ 2020 regular season, where they’ll be defending their IHSA Class 4A state championship.
“Oh, yeah, I’m ready for it,” Kitchen said. “I’m ready for baseball season, I can’t wait. We’ll be seniors, and we’re going to have a really good team this year. It’ll be fun.”
