EDWARDSVILLE – The Metro East Bears have been playing a bit shorthanded since their American Legion baseball season got under way last weekend.
They're waiting for the arrival of players from Edwardsville High's team once the Tigers finish up their season this weekend at the IHSA Class 4A state tournament.
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Despite that, the Bears are still hitting on all cylinders, getting four near-perfect innings from Bunker Hill's Storm Coffman and great performances up and down the lineup at bat as they went to 3-0 on the season with a 12-0, five-inning win over Eureka, Mo., at SIU-Edwardsville's Roy Lee Field Tuesday night.
“All these kids played this spring and they played well for their teams,” said Bears manager Ken Schaake. “We've got some good ballplayers, solid ballplayers – we've got (Cole) Hansel, who played junior college (and at Edwardsville previously), we've got (Tate) Wargo, who played at Gillespie, (Chance) Foss at (Southwestern Illinois College and at Roxana), (Dane) Sellars, who played at Bunker Hill and did well.”
Coffman got the start and gave up just one hit in his four innings of work while facing the minimum, thanks to a double play and a pickoff at first. “He picked up from where he left off last year,” Schaake said of Coffman, who played for the Bears last season. “He's come along a little bit with the bat too; he's one of those guys that nothing seems to bother him, but he's a competitor.”
The Bears got off to a quick start on Eureka; Foss led off the game with a single and stole second, then came home on a one-our Blake Vandiver double, which Steven Pattan immediately followed up by driving home Vandiver with a RBI single for a 2-0 lead through an inning.
Foss brought home another run with a double in the second to score Sellars; Wargo had scored earlier in the inning on a wild pitch and Coffman upped the lead in the third to 5-0. The Bears scored three more times in the fourth on bases-loaded walks and a Sellars RBI single, then scored four times in the fifth highlighted by RBI singles from Vandiver and Pattan.
Foss went 2-for-3 with a double, RBI and two runs scored, with Cole Hansel scoring twice, Vandiver 2-for-3 with a double, two RBIs and three runs scored, Pattan 3-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored, Coffman a run scored, Brandon Hampton a RBI, Wargo 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run scored and Sellars 2-for-2 with a run scored.
Coffman struck out three in his time on the mound and Sellars walked just one in his inning of work. The Bears travel to Aviston for a 7:30 p.m. game today, then go to East St. Louis for a 6 p.m. Thursday game before heading to Greenville for a weekend wood-bat tournament.
