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If there's one thing the Metro East Bears have wanted to do, it's this:
They want to get to the Aug. 5-9 American Legion Great Lakes Regional tournament on their own merit instead of backing in as host team; they have an automatic berth in the tournament as host team under Legion baseball rules.
They took a big step towards that goal Friday night at Bethalto Sports Complex as the Bears got a two-run single to tie the game in the fourth from Maverick McSparin and 5.1 strong innings of pitching from Zac Cato as they went on to defeat Belleville 7-2 to win the Illinois District 22 tournament.
The Bears advanced to next week's Illinois Fifth Division Tournament in Carmi, where they will meet the winner of a Monday game between Teutopolis and Harrisburg at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in the double-elimination tournament. The Fifth Division winner advances to the Illinois state tournament in Wheaton the week of July 27-Aug. 2.
“It happened pretty fast,” said tournament MVP Drake Hampton. “It's a lot of fun, but we still had to work hard and make plays. We're taking things game-by-game and we're all playing pretty well right now.”
The Bears' attitude is such that, even though they know they'll be in the regional tournament regardless, they want to win their way in. “We want to win our way in,” Hampton said. “If we make a mistake or fall behind, we don't get down on ourselves; we keep going and try to find ways to win.”
“We want to keep things going,” added McSparin. “We've got the momentum and we don't want to back in to the regional tournament. We also didn't want to get to another game (which would have been played Saturday night); we wanted to take care of business and finish it tonight.”
The Bears, after three good innings where Cato only gave up a leadoff single to Sam Haverlick on a bunt, ran into a bit of trouble in the fourth when Cal Kossina and Matt Klosterman led off with singles. Cato got Luke Frazier to ground to third, but Spencer Piquard singled a 3-1 pitch off Cato score Kossina and put runners at the corners. A walk to Austin Keen loaded the bases, but Cato got John Dozier to ground to first, where McSparin tagged the bag and then threw to second to get Keen out on a double play. The umpires, however, ruled Klosterman scored before the third out was recorded to put the Bears down 2-0.
Metro East responded right away when Jordan Hovey was hit by a pitch leading off and Matt Zielonko drew a one-out walk to put runners at first and second. They advanced a base when Wyatt Parker was called for a balk and, with two out, McSparin delivered a two-RBI single to tie the game.
“That was a big momentum changer,” said Bears manager Ken Schaake. “You play a lot different when it's a tie game, and it really helped get the momentum back for us.”
The Bears took the lead in the fifth when Anthony Kindle walked and Hampton singled to put two runners on. Hovey flew to right for the first out but Aaron Jackson singled in Kindle to put Metro East on top for the first time and Hampton scored on a wild pitch for a 4-2 lead. Another run came in the fifth when McSparin opened with a double but was caught in a rundown that allowed Caleb Buhs to reach second. Connor Melton then singled in Buhs to extend the lead to 5-1.
Cato had run into a bit of trouble in the top of the inning when he gave up a one-out double to Frazier, prompting the Bears to bring in Kory Loew, who pitched 1.2 innings and gave up just a walk to Casey Arnold in the seventh before Hampton took over in the eighth.
“I was fired up about the game,” said Cato when he learned he was getting the ball to start. “I just wanted to throw strikes; I know we've got a good defensive team. I was able to keep good control mostly and kept us in the game.”
“We were really tough, especially considering the heat we were playing under,” said Schaake about the weather conditions for the game; the temperature hovered from the upper 80s to the low 90s all night with humid conditions. “We did make a couple of mistakes but we battled them all night.”
The Bears sealed the game in the seventh when Hovey led off with a single and came home when Jackson hit his fourth triple of the tournament, with Jackson himself scoring when the throw to third to get him went away into the Bear dugout. Hampton then shut down the Hilgards in the eighth and overcame loading the bases with two out in the ninth to get Haubrick to pop to shortstop to end the game.
“We've been playing really well,” Cato said. “If we keep playing well, we'll be good.”
