EDWARDSVILLE – The Edwardsville High School Under-15 baseball team hadn’t played a game for some time, but on Friday evening, they picked up right where they left off.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
Hayden Moore went two-for-two with a walk, scored twice, and had the game’s big blow, a fourth inning RBI triple to right field as the Tigers defeated the South Side Prospects – Jr team 7-4 in the Tigers’ opener of the Diamond Sports Promotions All-American Classic tournament at the Edwardsville Sports Complex.
Edwardsville coach Tim Funkhouser was very glad to get his side back onto the field for a game, and thought his team competed very well.
“It was good to get back out there and play,” Funkhouser said. “We hadn’t played in a while, and the weather’s been biting us lately; today we had the delay because of the heat, so we got delayed 15 minutes, which wasn’t bad. It was good to see the guys go out there and compete, and I thought we got good innings out of all our pitchers. Carson (Krapf) started for us, and then we were able to have the guys follow in line after that.”
Jack Basarich came in relief of Krapf, who threw three and two-thirds innings, and was able to get the win by allowing only one walk through his inning and a third.
“Basarich came in relief of Krapf, and Krapf threw the first three and two-thirds, and then Basarich picked up the next inning-and-a-third, and he’s been really good for us,” Funkhouser said, “and didn’t get to throw last weekend, because of the weather. We were in a good position to handle our pitching lined up for the rest of the way, and then all of a sudden, weather affected us there. So we’ve kind of hit the weather bug, and today, we weren’t able to take (batting practice) because of the heat, so that was unfortunate.
“But I thought, for the most part, we need to improve defensively; we didn’t make some plays, and then we made a couple of baserunning gaffes,” Funkhouser continued, “but I thought as the game went on, we started taking better at-bats, and take advantage of what we could.”
The Prospects were able to take advantage of a first inning error to take the early lead, as lead-off man Nate Gerdin reached on an error by the third baseman, going to second on a single by Alex Delunes. Two outs later, Drew Grosenheider drew a walk to load the bases, and Gerden scored on a Jason Hoffmann single to left to give the Prospects a 1-0 lead. Edwardsville tied it up immediately, starting with a Moore single and stolen base, scoring on Evan Funkhouser’s single to center. Funkhouser was thrown out at first, but Cameron Grant followed up with a single and stolen base, scoring on Quinn Weber’s single to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead.
The Prospects took back the lead in the top of the third with a two-out rally. Ian Argent drew a walk to start the rally and went to third on a Grosenheider single. After Hoffmann walked to load the bases, a Davin Smith single scored two runs to give the Prospects a 3-2 lead. Hoffmann was picked off at third to end the inning.
The Tigers took the lead for good in the bottom of the frame with four runs. Pierce Boyer walked and Moore was hit by a pitch to get things started, then the duo perfectly executed a double steal. Both came in on a Grant single to give Edwardsville the lead for good at 4-3. One out later, with Basarich on second and Grant on third after another double steal, Zak Zoelzer reached on an error by the shortstop, allowing two runs to score and Zoelzer to go to second.
The Prospects drew back to within 6-4 in the top of the fourth, with a one-out single and stolen base by Andrew Hartle, scoring when Charlie Berra reached on an error by the third baseman. After Delunes drew a walk and stole second, Basarich came in to pitch and promptly got Kade Mahn to fly to left to end the inning.
In the bottom of the fourth, Drew Gvillo doubled between both the left and center fielders, and scored on Moore’s ringing triple to the right-field fence to make the score 7-4. Basarich allowed a walk in the fifth, but a double play ended the inning, Moore struck out the side in the sixth, and Funkhouser allowed only a single and walk in the seventh to preserve the win for Edwardsville.
The Tigers are just past the midpoint of the season, and Funkhouser thinks that it’s at the point where the players are starting to bear down and work hard.
“We’re probably at the midpoint, to be honest with you,” Funkhouser said. “We play seven weekends, and this is weekend five for us. So we’re a little past the midpoint, but really as far as games wise, we’ll probably be right at it. And whenever it starts getting hot, and guys have been playing for a while, guys can separate themselves by continuing to bear down and take at-bats. And that’s what we’ve seen in the past, and I think it’s a maturity aspect. So we’ll look forward to seeing the guys who fight that battle, and the guys who need work on that.”
The Tigers play twice on Saturday, at 10 a.m. against the St. Louis Force Blue team, and at 5:30 p.m. against the V Tool Academy team, both at the Edwardsville Sports Complex, and finish group play against the Prospects – Vitale team Sunday morning at 9 a.m. at McCluer North High in Florissant, Mo. Funkhouser is optimistic about the Tigers’ remainder of the summer season.
“I think we’ve pitched the ball well all year,” Funkhouser said, “and our hitting’s improved as the season’s gone on. And I think defensively overall, we’ve been pretty solid. A few of the games, we’ve had a few blow-up games, and we didn’t field the ball as well, and we gave the team extra outs, but that has only happened on a rare occasion. We’ve got a lot of guys that are versatile, can move around the field. And we look forward to competing tomorrow.
“We’ve got one game in the morning and one game later at night,” Funkhouser also said, “and then back at it in the morning, and hopefully, we’ll be playing Sunday out of the top two for the championship.”
Brent Feeney also contributed to this story.
