EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville’s under-15 summer baseball team got off to a quick start against the St. Louis Recruits club team Tuesday evening at EHS’ Tom Pile Field, the Tigers scoring twice each in the first and second innings and four times in the third while going on to post a 13-0, five-inning win to go to 15-8-3 on the summer.
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Tuesday’s sunny, warm weather was a contrast to what the Tigers have had in midweek games throughout the summer. “Midweek games, we’ve been unfortunately rained out (over the summer),” said Tiger coach Tim Funkhouser. “We’ve been out here to get work in and it’s rained or lightninged and we’ve had to pull guys off the field; it’s just unfortunate that that’s happened – we’ve had about four-midweek games get canceled.
“This is the first one we’ve actually gotten in; we probably have the same philosophy they have of your midweek games are to try to get at-bats and keep your guys in the flow of playing; unfortunately, we’ve been weekend-to-weekend. For the most part, I thought our guys did swing the bats well and went out there and competed.”
Edwardsville got out to a quick start when Hayden Moore led off the home half of the first with a triple to the fence in right field. “Hayden led it off with that big old triple,” Funkhouser said. “We kind of smacked them in the mouth; we got some runs added on as the game went on, but I thought (Carson) Krapf was up there throwing strikes and we made some plays behind him.
“The goal is to get prepped and we’ve got a full-fledged – even though it’s been hot and we’ve been limited at times because of the heat index and not being able to do stuff – today, we were able to get work in prior (to the game) and those things kind of get you ready for the next round of games. We were able to cover some team defense before the game.”
Moore’s opening triple led to an RBI single from Evan Funkhouser to put EHS up 1-0, with Funkhouser himself scoring thanks to an error in the field, later on, to put the Tigers up 2-0; two more runs came home in the second thanks to a Ryan Hampton single that scored Pierce Boyer followed by a Drew Gvillo run that expanded the lead to 4-0.
Cameron Grant drove in two more runs in the third on a double that brought in Moore and Funkhouser; Grant himself scored along with Zak Zoelzer later in the inning thanks to some walks to put Edwardsville up 8-0. An RBI fielder’s choice in the fourth scored Hampton and Edwardsville scored four more runs in the bottom of the fifth to bring the game to an end.
Moore was 2-for-3 with the triple and single on the evening with two runs scored while Funkhouser had a pair of hits and three runs scored, Grant a double and single and two runs scored, Zoelzer a double and two runs scored and Quinn Weber, Boyer, Gvillo and Hampton a run scored each.
The Tigers will host a Diamond Sports Promotions tournament this weekend, the Midwest Classic tournament, with play on Friday and Saturday; EHS will meet Rawlings Xtreme Broyles at 9 a.m. Friday, BNBA 15 Gold-Fulford at 7 p.m. Friday, Pekin Gamers at 4:30 p.m. Saturday and Missouri Bulls at 7 p.m. Saturday in group play of the tournament; a four-team elimination bracket will be held Sunday, with semifinal games at 9 a.m. at both Tom Pile Field and the JV turf field and the final at 1 p.m. Sunday at SIU-Edwardsville’s Roy Lee Field. All of EHS’ group-play games will be at Tom Pile Field.
