EDWARDSVILLE – Taking advantage of the opportunities given to you is a key part of baseball.
“We had several different opportunities where he had first and second or something like that with nobody out and we just didn't get anything done today,” said Edwardsville baseball coach Tim Funkhouser following the Tigers' first loss of the season Thursday afternoon, falling to Belleville West 4-3 at Tom Pile Field to drop to 9-1 overall, 3-1 in the Southwestern Conference; the Maroons improved to 7-6 overall, 3-0 in the SWC.
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“We needed somebody to step up and have a better at-bat,” Funkhouser said. “We had a hard time adjusting early in the game to (West pitcher Luke) Vanlandingham and then we didn't adjust well to (Chad) Sauls; you credit the pitchers for doing what they wanted to do, but we have to counteract that and we didn't do that as much and they took advantage of a couple of mistakes we made early on.”
Vanlandingham was making his first appearance of the season after suffering an broken wrist to his non-throwing hand – his left - during the off-season. “We've seen him in the past,” Funkhouser said, “and him being good today wasn't surprising. We've got some things we need to work on and that's a part of practice; we've been working on them, but today the kids are probably more aware of how it can affect the game.”
The Tigers and Maroons have had some close games between each other recently, and the fact that West handed Edwardsville its first loss wasn't lost on Maroon coach Todd Beltz. “I think it shows what we can do, what we can do when we bring out 'A' game,” Beltz said. “I just told the guys, 'you know, you don't remember a whole lot about how you play in March and April – you don't remember that, you're going to remember how the season ends.'
“It's a good win, but we want a lot more of them and we're certainly not satisfied with a win in April; we want more win in May and go deep into May.”
Beltz wasn't pointing to any particular thing as the reason for the win. “I don't think you can point to one thing,” Beltz said. “They're obviously a good ball club; they pitch well, they hit well, they don't hurt themselves in any facet of the game. I just think we went toe-to-toe with them, battled when we had to and got some key strikeouts when we needed them, made some plays when we needed them.
“They did as well, we just got one more than they did.”
West got a pair of runs in the top of the first in part because of a couple of Tiger miscues in the field and a two-run double off EHS starting pitcher Andrew Yancik from Ty Shylanski that brought in Logan Betz and Nick Westerheide. Edwardsville countered in the bottom of the first with a sacrifice fly from Drake Westcott that brought in Kade Burns and in the second on a Jack Cooper RBI single that drove in Yancik to tie the game.
Edwardsville took the lead in the fourth when Will Messer led off with a walk before Dylan Burris got a hold of a Vanlandingham offering and drove it to the fence in right-center for a RBI triple to bring in Messer. Things stayed that way until the top of the sixth when a Jack Lanxon double brought in Betz and Shylanski drove home Lanxon on a RBI single to put the Maroons up 4-2; they made a bid for more runs in the top of the seventh when they loaded the bases with one out before Lanxon lifted a fly ball deep to right-center that Burris made a diving catch on for the second out, then threw to second to double Matt Sisk to end the inning before another run could score.
Burris went 1-for-4 with the triple and RBI for the Tigers, with Cooper 1-for-3 with a RBI, Yancik 1-for-3 with a double and run scored and Burns and Messer a run scored each, with Westcott a RBI. Yancik went five innings for the Tigers, conceding three runs (one earned) on two hits and three walks with five strikeouts; Issac Garrett took the loss, facing three hitters and conceding an earned run on two hits and Dan Picchiotti threw the final two innings and struck out two.
The Tigers head to Springfield for a 4:30 p.m. game today against Sacred Heart-Griffin, then have the weekend off before meeting Belleville East on the road at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday before returning home for a league game against O'Fallon at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
